High Fly Precure
by Cure Legend
Summary: The world have craved a deep ravine in your heart using the knifes of indifference and ego. But when the cycles of hate created by the same force returns with a vengeance, can you overcome the wound and fight for the ones you love? For the four girls, the answer is simple: The sky is free for my heart to soar! Boost Off! High Fly Precure!
1. Emergency Scramble! Destory PRNAE NAGA!

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, above the planet of Avianland

Celeritas slowly regained conscious and opened her eyes. Across the clear and infinite universe, the glittering stars of the galaxy, whose light had always been soft and illuminative, had turn so bright, she had to shield her eyes with her wings. Then she refocused herself and looked closer.

Those are no stars but thrusters of GORB battleships. Hundreds and thousands of pyramid shaped monsters were flying in formation across the space. The muzzles of their cannons pointed toward the planet below and bright streaks of heavy particles were shot out from all millions of them continuously, savagely, and mercilessly.

Celeritas looked behind. Her home planet, finally a paradise after a few thousand years of never ending conflicts, was engulfed in flames. The hive core of Phytoplankton, burned to the ground; the most luxurious commercial hub of Zooplankton, covered with nuclear fallout; the exotically beautiful flower field of Pterygota, turned into a gaping crater; and lastly, her hometown for over one hundred years, the capital city of Aves, blown into rubbles by a relentless orbital bombardment. Its atmosphere had burned off from the thousands of nuclear initiations over the planet, revealing a failing core and the ugly machine that was draining its remaining life force. And the countless specks circling the planets like snowflakes were the remains of their Orbital Fleet. The Avianland Space Attack Force and Mobile Strike force fought against the evil GORB ferociously, yet despite the cunning of Admiral Spartas and the bravery of Captain Praesidio, 300 warships were whittled down to nothing and the 30 ships they destroyed seemed pathetically insignificant compare to the one thousand ships dominating Avianland.

What was she doing out here, so close to enemy battlecruisers? Then she saw the watch on her wings and remembered her order. Five hours ago, Captain Praesidio ordered her marine regiment to board the enemy flag ship in hopes of capturing it and using its weapons against the enemy. Shortly after, his ship, the supposedly unsinkable _Yukikaze_, flew into enemy formation to draw away their attention from her landing craft, singing the Hymm of Space Attack Force till his gallant end.

Still, her regiment failed, the landing craft was spotted by the flag ship's triple A and shredded to bits, piece by piece, soldier by soldier. She was lucky to be at the front of the craft and missed the barrage and was merely knocked unconscious by a chunk of debris. Unfortunately, this just meant she will either float in the empty void until the oxygen in her spacesuit ran out, or vaporized by a stray plasma shot.

Suddenly, a vine latched onto her claw and dragged her into the enemy flag ship through a hole. Just when she was about to yell, a leaf clamped over her beak and shut her up.

"Be Quiet, Sergeant Celeritas," A peplos wearing Phytoplankton, who looked like a green bipedal with vines for limbs and a flower bud for head, whispered through a handheld radio that was tuned to the same military frequency as her unit's, "I need you to come with me."

"Wait, you are That One! What the hell are you doing on an enemy warship?" Celeritas recognized the Phytoplankton's peplos.

"First of all, my name is Sophi, not 'That One'. And those villainous Meat-Robots captured me with Lot XXI and brought back to the ship for study. But these savage machines certainly had not anticipated that I knew martial arts. I dispatched these machines, but I need you to help me to retake Lot XXI from their hands."

"Lot XXI, the O-Parts found inside the Avianland Core actually exists and not just an internet conspiracy?" Celeritas exclaimed.

"Of Course they do, I knew they stored them inside Room 525, three stories up from here. But I need two more people." Sophi gazed out from the door of the room they were in and into the long and straight fluorene lightened hallway. The GORB were too arrogant in their mechanical superiority to defeat their opponent in from afar they didn't bother to design their ships against boarders. After confirming a pair of robotic crew had went past and there were no more hostiles, Sophi motioned Celeritas out and follow her.

"Is your gun still working?" Sophi asked.

"It is a slug thrower, so it is still good. I have 6 magazines, 4 packs of explosives, 2 incendiary grenades and 4 EMP grenades." Celeritas's professionalism kicked in and she rechecked her gear. After she was done, she readied her assault rifle and patted her pistol side arm.

"I am ready. But why do we need two more people?"

"The four O-Parts were biometrically coded," As they creeped forward, Sophi answered, "Unless handled by a special tool, which was destroyed by orbital bombardment, they would designate the first Avianland Caelum holding them, no matter if you hold it through your sleeves or other tools, to be its controller and cannot even be touched by other caelum. And one Caelum can only hold one of the devices."

"They are devices?" Celeritas was confused, "not some big old geared machines?"

"No, shhh!" Sophi shushed Celeritas and pointed toward an opened doorway, a low, heart-wrenching moaning came out from the sparsely lit room and sent chills up their spine. The more chilling fact that sunk on both Caelums were that they recognized the voice pattern of that moaning.

It was from a fellow Caelum.

Celeritas ran to the door frame and pull out a machine from her tactical vest. She put the machine on a code pad beside the door and within seconds, the disruptor rerouted the circuit and opened the door for them. At the second the door opened, Celeritas rolled in and assumed a tactical position with rifle in hand and readied to gun down any hostiles.

There was no one standing on that flashing computer terminal with a progress bar. However, a Pterygota and a Zooplankton were tied down on metal slabs, wearing strange helmets with wires that connected to the computer. The progress bar continued to rise as these two Caelums tossed and thrashed on the metal slabs. It didn't take a genius to know that the GORB was downloading their memory forcefully and it sent Celeritas into a seething rage.

Sophi walked to the computer terminal and started typing furiously on the circular keyboard. No sooner, the downloading sequence terminated and the straps on the two Caelum disappeared. She walked to the metal slabs was surprised.

"It was Ms. Opacitas! Why was she in this low priority assimilation room? And who was the other guy?"

"Oh, that git is Agilis. A rich photographer who can't take a decent picture and has a bad mouth." Celeritas returned to the door and carefully peaked for enemy.

"Sophi…Sensei?" The butterfly Opacitas slowly opened her eyes.

"What did those bastards do to me?" Agilis slowly pushed himself up.

"We don't have much time; I need you two to come with me." Sophi looked at them.

"To where?" The jellyfish/gasbag shaped Agilis stretched his tentacles and took up his camera.

"Contact!" Celeritas hissed and brought the rifle to bear. She was lining up the shots to two slowly approaching walker-shaped GORB when a few powerful explosions rocked the GORB battlecruiser. The GORB walkers, as if received some signal, quickly turned around and disappeared.

"Some ICBM bases are still intact! Avianland was not yet gone! You three find some place to hide, I will try to take control the ship." Celeritas was about to run when a vine grabbed her.

"Stop it! Sergeant!" Sophi floated over, "You are just going to kill yourself"

"I have orders, Sophi Sensei." Celeritas tried to free herself from the vines.

"You now got new orders, Priority Authentication Six Six Alpha Zero," Seeing Celeritas realized she had been given a high priority order, Sophi took out a datapad and entered a code. The datapad opened, revealing a brightly lit room with uniformed Caelums of all four species ran or floated around. An Owl-looking Avis ran into the screen and was surprised: "Sophi Sensei, are you alright?"

"I am well, Commander Sicon." Sophi greeted the commander while Celeritas gasped at the live transmission from the secret command center and the image of Commander-in-Chief Sicon, the commander of all Avianland military—at most, what was left of it.

"Lot XXI was captured by the GORB, but I escaped and rescued Sergeant Celeritas. I also found two civilians and we are very close to the mid-level security storage room it is in."

"Sir!" Celeritas stood ram-rod straight and saluted with her wing, "Sergeant Celeritas was ordered by Captain Praesidio to capture enemy flag ship."

"That order is countermanded, Sergeant." Commander Sicon ordered, "You are to assist Sophi Sensei in retrieving Lot XXI and retreat to the coordinate stored inside Lot XXI."

"But Sir, the flag ship…"

"The flag ship no loner mattered, soldier." A devastating explosion rocked the command center, "The Avianland in this instant is done for. You follow the order of Sophi Sensei and retrieve Lot XXI and you can save the future of Avianland. Do it! The last amber of Avianland military will divert the attention from the enemy so you can sneak in and retake…"

The communication was abruptly cut, but at the same time, the intensity of the missile strikes increased.

Celeritas dropped her salute and took up her rifle. She looked at Sophi Sensei and nodded, then at the two civilian.

"I need you two to come with us, for our homeland."

"What? You need us to help you steal something from these meat-robots? Are you crazy? We need to get out of here immediately!" Agilis whispered angrily.

"We will, but we will get Lot XXI first. And don't forget what I have done for you in that stupid jungle, gasbag. Just think this as repaying the favour." Celeritas grilled him with her fiery eyes.

"Ok, Ok. You win, C." Agilis looked away.

Because many GORB were on their battle station. Only a few saw them as they crawled toward the central ventilation duct, and they all received a bullet to their CPU before they managed to raise their guns. Although the ventilation duct was small and dark, Celeritas had night vision goggle and all of them was even smaller. Use an inspection ladder for maintenance robots, they arrived at the hallway that contained Room 525. However, two walker GORB and three disc GORB were guarding the entrance. Apart from their constant mechanical beeping, no other sound was present.

"Sophi Sensei," Celeritas was poising to kick open the vent, "Do you see any other guards in this level when you escape?"

"No, this is a storage area and a dead-end. Most of the guards were on the other side of the wall. But we will need to get to their hanger immediately after we get Lot XXI."

"Then it is time to go loud!" She kicked open the vent and threw an EMP grenade out. A slow hissing was all the GORB heard before their internal system was temporarily disabled. Celeritas jumped out right after the EMP grenade initiated and unsheathed her combat blade on her wings. With a fluid movement, she sliced through the CPU of the two walkers. The three disc had just started to reboot when she brought out her silenced pistol and double-tapped all three of them. The specially made anti-material bullet tore through the discs' armor and destroyed their CPU. Suddenly, Agilis shouted: "Disc! Behind you!"

Celeritas immediately threw herself on the ground and watched the disc shaped GORB flew past. Its sharpened blade was spinning so fast it seemed turned invisible. Using the rotating blade as a shield, she deflected a mad dash from the GORB. Celeritas knew the pistol can't penetrate its armor. However, her rifle was unsilenced and a shot will expose them. She cursed and, after dodging another attempt of the GORB to decapitate her, took out her assault rifle and put three .70 Caliber Anti-Material rounds through the GORB's armor and shattered its CPU. The echo of the shot rang through the empty corridor.

Since stealth was no longer needed, Celeritas took a breeching charge and slapped it on the door. She flew back up to the vent and shouted:

"Fire in the Hole!"

The blast blew the door off the frame, exposing a dark storage room with shelves illuminated by stark overhead fluorescent lights.

"Alright, the coast is clear but they will soon arrive. let's move!"

They entered the storage room searched the shelfs up and down, desperately trying to find the mysterious devices before the enemy arrived. Finally, Opacitas shouted:

"Over here!"

The four devices that was Lot XXI looked like silver, blocky, house-shaped pentagonal smartwatches, except they were as large as Celeritas herself, with a big oval shaped screen on the left, a small hologram projection lens similar to those used in communication suites on starships in the middle, and a lever near the end.

"Alright caelums, let's take one and go."

Sophi reached out and took one of the devices. As soon as her vine touched the device, rainbow colored data ran across the screen and the color of device turned green except the lever, which remained silver.

Celeritas stowed her rifle and took another one. This device was also activated and turned blue the same way.

"Why were they turning into your color?" Opacitas raised the obvious question.

"I have no clue. Must be the biometric." Sophi answered. "Now come on, we don't have time."

Agilis snatched one off the shelf. When this one turned pink, he was shocked.

"Unless this device is broken, I looked blue, not pink." He murmured

"Your camera is pink." Celeritas couldn't resist the urge to gloat.

Opacitas slowly touched the remained one. This one turned snow white.

"This was weird. My body color is yellow and red, why would this one turn grey?"

Before Sophi managed to speak his opinion or Celeritas tried to make a joke, the screens on all four devices glowed and the lenses projected a celestial map. On the map, a short line pointed from Avianland to another fringe world in the same arm of the galaxy as their planet. Labeled as "Makkalland" in an ancient form of the language they spoke, this was a blue planet with a huge landmass. Its coordinate was also given and Agilis took a picture of it. While Celeritas was checking the quality of the picture, a script began to play out:

"If you managed to hear this, that means Avianland is again under the threat of GORBs and the PRNAEs. This device, we called it SoarThrottle, is a redesigned version of the ones we used to repel GORB from our planet at the end of the Fourth Solar Calendar. Yet we can't completely defeat them and we predict they would return at the middle of the Fifth. SoarThrottle is the pinnacle of Avianland technology, but Caelums can't use them because we don't have the type of…speciality that is required to use these devices. Go to the planet we designated and give SoarThrottles to members from the dominant intelligent bipedal race on that planet whom you decide worthy of them, these beings have what is needed to use these devices. The wielders of Possessive RNA Exterminator Counter Unit (Redesigned) will do what no one had ever done before and turn the time around. Yours sincerely, Professor Macintosh. Hey! Dolos, how…"

The script sizzled and ended, along with the hologram projection.

"So these meat robots had been here before, but what are those PRNAEs? And what is RNA?"

Sophi stroked her chin and thought aloud.

"Avianland had another civilization before?" Opacitas exclaimed.

"I knew it!" Agilis slammed two of his tentacles together, "I always thought it was strange that the jungle ruin and Zone 51 were off limits. That's what the government is hiding from us!"

"No wonder they started a massive military exercise and drafted me a few months before the invasion." Celeritas smashed her left wing on her right wing, "The government knew this all along! But what does he mean by speciality and why would those beings on another fringe world have what we don't have?"

Suddenly, loud mechanical footsteps and whining of propellers came from the other end of the corridor. The enemy arrived, and from the sound of it, numerous and readied.

"Everyone! Hide behind that shelf." Celeritas put the device into her tactical backpack, "If I remember the schematic of the ship correctly, a frigate hanger should be right under us."

Celeritas retrieved an electromagnet from a pouch on her tactical vest and attached it to the floor. Using a rope and the shelf itself, she made a pulley system connected to the electromagnet and asked everyone to pull the rope to keep the floor/ceiling section from falling. She then pulled out a spraycan-like device and drew a circle on the floor with it. The acidic paste ate into the metal floor immediately and burned a hole through ceiling of the hanger. The four of them pulled the rope and the section was pulled up and put down on the floor.

Celeritas ran to the hole and looked down. Fortunately, due to the intensive bombardment, every GORB was too busy to look up. Even better, a hyperdrive-equipped scout ship was under the very spot with its hatch opened and its maintenance GORBs standing on the side. This ship was readied to took off and merely waiting for its crew.

"You see that hatch on the top?" Celeritas pointed to the two civilians and Master Sophi, "go down into the hatch, no one would be in the ship. Also, Agilis, that ship's control and start up procedure is similar to your yacht. Now…"

Shadows danced on the corridor's ceiling and the sensor heads of two walker GORB were raising out from the staircases. Celeritas went full auto and leveled a wall of suppressive fire at the GORBs that cut through sensor heads and forced the GORBs to lay low.

"Go!"

Sophi, Opacitas and Agilis jumped down the hole one by one as Celeritas changed used magazines as fast as she can. As Agilis disappeared through the hole, Celeritas threw an incendiary grenade toward the door of the room and jumped down. The grenade exploded into a wall of fire, stopping the GORBs in their tracks.

Luckily, no GORB sensed anything amiss through the explosions and machining noises. Celeritas entered the hatch silently and locked it, then she ran to the control room of the vessel. She saw Agilis busy getting the ship started and Opacitas sitting on the floor, limbs covering her earhole while Sophi was comforting her.

"Agilis, after you started up the ship, don't drive it out. We engage hyperdrive inside."

"But doing so is dangerous and against regulation!" Agilis protested.

"We got out there and we will be shredded to pieces by their anti-fighter guns. It is true it is dangerous, but only to these damn meat robot. I am going to the machine gun nest and eliminate those trying to stop us. And Agilis?"

"What?" Agilis turned her head around.

"Thanks for saving my butt."

The GORBs scheduled to depart on the scout ship climbed on top of it and was bewildered at the locked hatch. One of them was going to shout at the ground crew when it noticed the electromagnetic machine gun pod on the ship turned and faced them, a grinning Celeritas was at its control.

"Surprise! Motherf***er!"

The hypervelocity railgun rounds tore through the bodies of the GORBs before they registered what happened. At the same time, the anti-gravity system was engaged and the ship floated up, its thrusters spew brilliant white light as the hyperdrive began charging. Celeritas swung the machine gun around, trying to take as any people down as she can and prevent any GORB firing shoulder-fired anti-air laser cannon at the scout ship.

Seeing Sophi and Opacitas were on the seats with their seatbelts on. Agilis pushed the lever that engaged the hyperdrive.

As Strong gravity wrapped dimension and tore a hole in the fabric of time, a bright stream of laser flew toward the scout ship.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, above the planet of Makkal or "Earth"

The scout ship blasted through time and space and zoomed into the space above a sapphire planet. Its engines destroyed and its crew shocked unconscious by the blast, the ship was grabbed by the gravity field of the planet and entered a deorbiting route. Its onboard computer made minute corrections to prevent itself—and its occupants—from being destroyed.

Inside the silent control room, the holographic lenses and the screens on the devices spontaneously turned on again.

"…about that?" The sound of Professor Macintosh spoke out from within.

"Good, they don't need to know the details. Besides, this will amend what we have done to them. They now have a fighting chance." Another voice, much older, much colder replied.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

The blue hair girl silently gazed the falling flame as it plunged through the atmosphere toward the horizon. Without waiting to see where it would land like other people around her, she sighed and walked away.

The morning sun moderated the cold sea breeze, turning it to a mild comfort and stimulant for the early risers. Yet the girl still walked emotionlessly, her heart automatically tuned away from the world it perceived as dangerous.

"Hey, can't made up your minds yet?" A genki voice rang out beside her hear.

Jumped away at fright, the blue hair girl saw a sports shirt wearing girl jogging beside her.

"Not yet, Mirai," The blue hair girl whispered, "I still…can't run."

"Come on! Get out of it already!" The sports shirt girl slapped her back, "Tsubasa, you are better than that, right? I don't want to win the competition without you competing against me."

"I just…" Tsubasa walked away from Mirai, "I just can't, Ok?"

It was another normal day at the neutral Orb Union, freed from the power plays of the three big politic-economic-military blocs. Tsubasa Akar, with short hairs and a black Union Flag-shaped hairpiece, wearing the blue overcoat, the white undershirt, the green ribbon, the matching skirt, the black thigh high socks, and the brown shoes that were the uniform of the Morgenroete High School, spent it just like any other day. Although she was sitting at what people called the "protagonist's seat", her mind did not wander off during the class and she didn't sleep in the class. She knew how to do her homework—although not as good as that noble girl "Lady McConnell", as how people called her despite she insisted people calling her Alice.

During the morning break, the teacher put the news channel on the screen. It showed Orb's warships and their M1A Astray Mobile Suits circling a patch of waters a few miles off the coast of the Onogoro Island. The scene switched to the shore where a scientist was saying that this was a meteorite that fell from the space and studying it will allow human to know more about the universe. Lines that Tsubasa knew was a lie.

Although she was down and depressed, she was no fool. She grew up in a family tied to the sky with her father being a great ace among Union's Flag Fighters and her mother being the brightest engineer in Iris Inc. She saw the "meteor" changed its descend profile several times, with bright streams of light coming out of its sides that were clearly the movement control thrusters doing their work. It must be a spaceship. But is it from Earth? Or from space?

She shook her head. This won't change anything for her at all. With fear tying her down, she could hardly run again.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Sea outside of Onogoro

The divers had reached the spaceship after an hour of descent. The dark and rectangular shaped spaceship was almost invisible without lightings and sonar scans from the ROVs hovering beside it.

The divers started from the backend, taken note about the damaged thruster. They swung their flashlights up and down the sides, looking for anything that resembled airlocks. They also noticed the two machine guns on the sides and marked the similarities between the guns mounted on the sides of the ship—they assume this was the side and not the top or bottom—and the main guns on Orb's Linear Tanks. They reached a hardened bow that borrowed into the continental shelf. Ascending to the top, the lead diver was surprised to see a hole with a well-defined outline that suggested something had been mounted or carried here. Inside the hole, a faint screen was showing something.

As the lead diver came close, he found unrecognizable markings flashing and changing on the screen. When he arrived at the screen, there were two set of markings, suddenly, only one remained. An alarm went off in the lead diver's brain and he frantically mentioned his companions to go up using their underwater propulsion devices. Bents be damned, that ship was going to blow up!

Luckily, they were all able to make it into the low pressure chamber lowered from a salvage ship before they heard a loud boom. Most of the ROVs were destroyed when the ship self-destructed, yet one was far enough from it to see the bright blue flashing before explosions occurred in different area of the ship, turning it into unrecognizable pieces of junk.

The lead diver's radio spoke up: "Captain, I would like your report by tomorrow 1700, but now just a brief note, is that ship…"

"No Mam, this is not a ship from the three blocs, the ship uses different language and even different timing system. Not to mention the unusual metal it is built from."

The woman on the other side whistled: "Interesting…"

"Also," The Captain swallowed hard, "I think there is one more thing you need to know."

"What is that, Captain?"

"I saw a hole on the ship that looked like a hold or a grip for something. The hole is where I see the self-destruct sequence countdown panel. I think…I think someone, or _something_, had escaped from the ship and set it to self-destruct."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Shore of Yalafath

The four Caelums lied down on a deserted, rocky area, trying to catch their breath.

"Is blowing up the ship really necessary? Sophi Sensei?" Opacitas asked timidly. "They seemed to be advance enough with all of their ships and bipedal robots."

"Ms. Opacitas, the rule says that any civilization that has not developed Hyperdrive technology—that means there is no hyperdrive signals to be detected—cannot get access to technologies from civilizations that have them. We must follow this rule if we want to maintain the order in the universe." Sophi floated up and dusted sands off her bodies.

"Alright, so what should we do?" Celeritas unpacked her bags and rechecked her gears. "Are we suppose to find the leaders of these bipedal and handed over the devices to them?"

"I don't think it is a wise choice," Sophi said, "We need to know more about them first. Agilis, do you still have the satellite phone you used during your jungle exploration?"

"Yes, Yes, why aren't you using honorific when talking to me?" Agilis took an oblong device from his storage sacks and handed it to Sophi.

"Because you are an unruly spoiled rascal while Ms. Opacitas is a well-mannered lady and Sergeant Celeritas is a dutiful soldier." Sophi connected her datapad to the satellite phone and reprogrammed phone. "Got it, we are now downloading the languages of the planet and its history from the planet's internet."

Everyone gathered around Sophi. They saw a news channel talking about the successful public exhibition of AEU's first mobile suit, the Enact, that can receive energy from the Orbital Elevator via microwave and a terrorist attack on the Human Reform League's Orbital Elevator "Sky Pillar" during its ten-year anniversary was stopped by HRL's elite forces. The channel continued about the simmering conflicts in Azadistan Kingdom, faction wars in the southern Africa Federation that was believed to be a proxy war between AEU, HRL, and Union with the PMC Trust from the Republic of Molaria reaping profits, and a 300-year long civil war on Ceylon Island.

"This is terrible!" Opacitas covered her eyes from the horror.

"How could they be so violent?" Agilis looked at the distant ships and MSs with contempt.

"Don't forget, it is the same in Avianland until two hundred years ago." Sophi reminded them, "Our peace is a result of the fear of mutual assured destruction and increased economic and political cooperation. Do you know initially no one believe the Species Alliance could work out because we are so different biologically that we can't cooperate or even coexist in peace? We should see if there is an effort to change this status quo."

Further searching and hacking into the planet's GPS told them the place they were in was the island of Onogoro, part of the Orb Union. Long stood for the ideal of politically neutral and non-interfereism, along with a secretive and huge banking system, this wealthy and democratic nation attracted people who yearn for a simple life and peaceful research. Celeritas noted that although it looked like a naïve nation, Orb's military was feared and respected by the three blocs. The Morgenroete Incorporated was an independent military-industrial complex that produced powerful warships, tanks, and these bipedal robots called Mobile Suits. Orb Army's current main motorized infantry unit was these M1A Astrays, which can also float and operate in space. Sophi also noticed that although Orb did not intervene in the world's conflicts, it did allow organizations that do advocate for certain ideology or doctrine—provided that they didn't violate Orb's laws—to set up headquarters in the country so they can avoid becoming political tools of jockeying blocs.

"Hmm," Sophi's vines brushed on her chins, "this country does live up to its name as the nation of peace. Too bad they could not advocate for this idea."

Suddenly, a noise came out from everyone's stomach. Agilis said: "How about we go book a room in a hotel and freshen up first?"

Celeritas and Sophi gave him a sour look: "So we are just going into a group of aliens who had never seen beings from other planets before and say: 'Hey yo, we want to book four rooms, room service included.' Is that it? They are going to throw us into their labs and dissect us or hold us in dark rooms and torture us until we give them every single technology we know. Use your brain, no matter how small it is, gasbag, we need to hide."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, South Pacific, 300 m under the sea level.

A dark, rectangular vessel rapidly rose inside a rocky shaft, pushed by four powerful rocket engines. It was covered entirely by a highly dense and nearly indestructible metal alloy found in transition zones between the crust and the mantle and corrected its movements using small rocket thrusters with surprising accuracy.

Inside, the only light sources were the overhead red combat lights, casting the huge cargo area with ruby lights. Something looked like humans, but with insect characteristics, were wearing dark Battle Dress Uniforms, clutching assault rifles in their hands and carrying railguns on their backs. A humanoid sat on the pilot seat of the vessel, carrying nothing other than a pistol and a folder, which he was reading.

He leaned back on the seat, casting an eye to the instrument panel and appeared satisfied about the heading of the vessel. He then remembered the briefing his commanding officer gave him:

"Captain Fahid, you will lead the opening move of our great return. We shall take back what is rightfully ours and exterminate these pests on the surface world. You will lead your team to secure a landing zone and devastate as many of their military as you can. I wish there is another way, but the transition tunnel only appears for eight second and only one dropship can go through. The next ship should be able to launch 1 days later. These surface pests seemed to be very well armed, so we will give you a new weapon in our arsenal. They will more than level the field for us."

"What is it, Sir?" Captain Fahid asked.

"Our benefactor, who looks like a mix-breed of organic and robotics, called them Possessive RNA Exterminator."

Fahid returned to the folder, which contained the technical specs of these PRNAEs and its instruction manual. He had read them over a few times before today, but he would do so again to make sure nothing could go wrong. For a Pure Earth!

The ship slowed to a halt as it entered an airlock. Workers attached propellers on the hull and started filling the airlock with water. When the pressure inside the airlock was the same as outside, the airlock's other side opened, revealing a dazzling surface above the vessel.

"Alright pucci team, Double check your weapons. Tech priests, engage the PRNAE mixer! Today we strike back against evil, today we fight for Earth! Down with the Pirati!" Fahid raised his fist and his men cheered.

A trail of bubbles formed in helixes as the propellers roared and spun in high speed. The dropship launched itself out of the airlock and toward the surface of the ocean.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Sea outside of Onogoro

"What? Propellers in the water?" The captain of the Takemikazuchi Class Carrier flag ship and the Commander of the spaceship retrieval operation were startled.

"Yes, high speed, must be a sub driving in flank speed, what I don't get is why…holy smoke it just leaps out of the water! We have radar contact and holding! Unbelievable! It must have transformed into an aircraft! Who the hell make that! Captain Kenzo and Commander Haruhara, as the closest military unit you need to intercept that bogey that just appeared in our airspace. If you deem it hostile, you have the authority to shoot it down. The bogey is approximately due east of you and heading One-Three-Five, right toward Olofat." The radio link to Central Military Command Center barked.

Using data link, the information was quickly shown on the screen inside the carrier's CIC and on the monitor inside the six Astrays, the Falcon team, flying toward the bogey.

"Jones-Actual, this is Falcon-one," the leader of Falcon team called, "I have visual IDed the bogey. It resembles a huge flying brick pushed by four rockets, probably a rapid deployment dropship. It is fast and likely to outrun us if it went pass us. There is a symbol of a planet and a line of unrecognizable characters. Falcon-two is trying to raise them on radio but there is no respond. Permission to take warning shot."

"Permission granted." Commander Haruhara ordered, "make it stop."

"Yes, Mam!"

Six Type 71 Beam Rifles sighed as six energy beams shot pass the dropship, misses by a few meters. Captain Fahid thought of taunting the Pirati pilots in those ugly bipedal robots, but decided against it. Instead, he maintained radio silence as more warning shots flew by, closer and closer, and called his men to brace for impacts.

"Mam, target is not willing to stop and turn around, request permission to engage."

"Permission granted, neutralize the target."

This time, the six energy beams from the Astrays exploded on the bow of the dropship. Shockingly, the ship tanked the damage without slowing down or even looked like its paint is scratched. As the pilots spread out and kept shooting, its speed suddenly increased and turned toward Falcon-Six, piloted by a newbie. Falcon-Six realized too late and tried to turn away, but the ship rammed and immediately crushed the MS and its pilot on its bow. The MS detonated in a flash of orange and red, but the dropship continued to forge forward without stopping.

"Simons! No!" Falcon-One shouted, "All team, keep your formation and shoot it down!"

The remaining members fired, one lucky shot went right inside the armored rocket nozzle and its explosion triggered a chain-reaction and destroyed the rest of the nozzles. The powerless dropship fell from the sky, yet the prosperous city of Olofat was only a short distance away.

Inside the dropship, klaxons blared as Fahid struggled to control the dropship as the autopilot malfunctioned. He shouted without looking back: "Sit Rep!"

"Sir!" His 2IC, the second-in-command, shouted back, "The team suffered no injury and the PRNAE mixer is in good condition!"

"There is no way we can land this dropship in that city." Fahid scanned the numerous high buildings on his way. "We will paraglide to some high rise and let the dropship and the PRNAE crash on somewhere where it could do its work. Ready your wingsuits!"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

For the first time in every living Orb citizens' memories, the air raid siren's shriek rang through out the streets of Olofat was accompanied by the monotonic public service announcement directing the evacuation process. Following the PSA, cars were parked by the side of the streets as people ran, as orderly as they can, toward the nearest subway stations and underground shelters. At the same time, Mobile Suit squadrons and tank columns rushed toward the falling dropship, guns blazing all the way. The solid rounds of the Linear Tanks were apparently more effective than the beam rifles of the Astrays as deep grooves and dents were gouged out on the dropship's armor.

Since the school was founded by the Morgenroete Industry's investors and CEOs, Morgenroete High School had their own underground shelter. After the last teacher entered the huge concrete room and reported that the school was completely empty, a thick steel blast door slowly dropped down, sheltering the thousands of students and teachers against any harm. Suddenly, the teacher of Gr. 8 Class A ran up to the headmaster of the school and showed him her clipboard with the attendance record while she was still out of breath.

"One…one of my students was not here!"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

"What the hell?" The four Caelums hid behind a pile of plastic bags as big as themselves and filled with something very stinky. "Why are all these people running?"

"Shouldn't our priority be getting away from this stink pile?" Agilis was very uncomfortable, his tentacles wrapped around his own body. "I swear this is way worst than spending 3 nights in the jungle."

"Shut up, spoiled brat." Celeritas flipped the flying jelly fish upside down despite Agilis's protest, "Master Sophi, is there any information about this on the internet?"

"It seems an unknown hostile vessel had breached their aerospace and was heading toward this city. Orb government was ordering everyone to enter the underground shelter. It seems this species had a different hearing frequency range than us. So we can't hear their air-raid siren and public service announcement." Sophi concluded.

"It looked like everyone is gone." Poking her eye tendril out of the corner, Opacitas whispered.

"Alright. When I am doing recon, I have found a small building on a small meadow on the opposite side of a huge building surrounded by walls. If this species had the same psychological process like us—and it looked like they do—this is a shed used to store food or tools. We could temporarily hide there and plan our next move." Pulling out her pistol, Celeritas jumped out of the garbage storage area and scanned around for hostiles. Finding none, she mentioned the rest to follow her.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

I should had kept my exercising regiment. Tsubasa thought bitterly as she drove her body forward on the empty street. She recently discovered a rocky shore not far away from her school where she could watch the Olofat International Airport and the trainings of the Capital Guard Division's fighter jets and Mobile Suits.

It was not that she doesn't enjoy companionship—she does have quite a bit of friends in the school—but sometimes Tsubasa wanted to be alone for a while. Is it because she was a bit introverted? Or she just needed time to move on from the defeat?

Suddenly, a huge shadow covered the blistering sun. Tsubasa looked up and gasped at the heavily damaged dropship falling toward the football field of her school. She noticed the smoke coming out from the thruster units and realized that the reason she can't hear it was because the dropship was unpowered. She also noticed a detail—the dropship has a planet-like roundel that wasn't belong to any nation on Earth.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Tsubasa saw something else. She looked up, then quickly ran at the sight of a cluster of wing suits swooping down like eagles. Having seen a lot of military movies and literatures, she knew those were probably a special op team from the dropship and people like them usually don't like witnesses.

Unfortunately, Captain Fahid saw the moving dot on the ground.

"We have a runner on the ground! Alpha Seven Five, eliminate the tango!"

One of the wing suits peeled off and headed toward Tsubasa while the rest landed on a five-story building.

One looking back confirming a chasing enemy motivated Tsubasa to run with all she got. She ran to the gate of the school and dived in, just when a string of bullets punched a line on the stone door frame. Tsubasa didn't spend time look back, instead, she decided that the school's shelter was probably closed and ran toward the small sports equipment shed, hoping the enemy won't bother to search for a civilian like her.

Alpha Seven Five clicked the safety back on and called his leader.

"Alpha Actual, this is Seven Five, the tango looked like a civilian and ducked into a compound that our dropship will slam into, should I fall back?"

"Fall back toward my position, Seven Five. Alpha Actual Over."

Half way to the shack, a powerful and hot shockwave threw Tsubasa to the wall. She was almost knocked unconscious, but she forced herself to stay awake and look at the source of the explosion.

It was a disastrous sight. The dropship's heavily armored bow smacked a hole in the soft football field, but the damaged sides cannot hold out and crumbled up on itself. Either the fuel tank or the ammunition was ignited by the spark of metal clashing and blew up in a horrible pyrotechnic display. Yet the worst was not over.

Tsubasa was slowly standing up when she saw the debris bulged, then receded. Then it again bulged and something purple and slimy emerged from the twisted metals. The slimy objects left blood-vessel like organs on the crushed armor plates and football goals as it swarmed over the ruin. Tsubasa didn't fail to notice the grass near the debris started to rot at an alarming rate.

All of a sudden, the metal rubbles sprang up as if given life. Its veins pulsing as they combined with one another in the midair and formed into a huge purple metallic dragon.

On the roof top of the five-story building, the mysterious strike force cheered at the destruction. Captain Fahid silenced his men with a wave, then ordered half of them to secure this roof top while another half to secure an escape route.

"Its pay back time, Pirati." Looking down at the raging monster, Fahid murmured with a fanatical grin.

The four Caelum had just closed the door to the small—to the local beings anyway—building and lying down on some dirty pads to rest when an explosion rocked the shack and caused a small avalanche of balls and shelfs. The four had to flew up to avoid all of the falling danger while try not to breath in the dust.

"What was happening now?" Opacitas was crying from all of the pressure.

Celeritas flew to the small window on the top and looked. What she saw brought her back to Avianland, where fire and explosion consumed the cities of the planet.

"Some..something crashed here." Celeritas said shakily.

The transformation of the debris to a flying snake-like being shocked her out of her stupor. At the same time, her GORB sensor on her assault rifle beeped.

"That thing is a GORB? It looked nothing like it!"

"Wait a second," Sophi looked closer and found the strange purple veins on the monster, "Could they be…"

The SoarThrottles they were carrying flashed at the same time and an alarm blared:

"PRNAE Detected!"

"So the PRNAE is that purple slime that used the metals to build its own body!" Sophi exclaimed. But her head soon slumped. "We need to get a local being to use this device, or else we can't fight it."

"I only have one clip left and it is in my gun right now. I only have three EMP grenade and it won't work on biological targets. I have used up all of my explosives." Celeritas stomped the ground, tears brimmed her eyes, "Damn! We need something! Anything! To defeat them!"

Suddenly, the door of the shack slid open and a female being ran inside and slid it close again.

Tsubasa closed the door and slid to the ground, closing her eyes and tried to catch her breath. She reopened them and saw a most bizarre scene. A BDU-wearing blue bird was holding an assault rifle; a colorful butterfly was drinking from what looked like a thermos; a gasbag was floating around with its camera dangling below him; and a humanoid plant looking at her with mouth—or what look like a mouth—agape while holding a datapad with its vines.

She rubbed her eyes and looked again, trying to make sense of this strange circumstance.

Sophi was the first to snap back from the shock and commanded the datapad to translate.

"Do no be afraid. We mean no harm."

Seeing the strange plant humanoid raised its datapad with words she could understand, Tsubasa's fright receeded a little.

Realizing what should she do, Celeritas also stowed her rifle.

Opacitas bowed while Agilis, being a showed off he was, somersaulted to the female being and took a photo of her and took the photo out of his Instant-print Camera.

"Eww, the exposure rate is all wrong!" Looking at that awful picture, Tsubasa protested regardless of whether the gasbag understood.

Another explosion shocked the shack. Tsubasa reached the window sill and pushed herself up. From the small window atop the door, she could see the tail of the monster pierced the cockpit of an Astray while breathed a stream of purple flame toward a Linear Tank, which destroyed it. Two Heli unleashed rockets toward the monster, but it shrugged off as if they were BB rounds. She dropped down and risked opened the door for a peak. Outside, two Astrays had already been decimated. Their mangled frames laid in the partially crumbled schools and the surrounding neighbourhood.

After finishing an entire armor column of Linear Tanks and Missile Trucks, the PRNAE turned its purple monoeye to the school as if sensed something. It slithered back inside the campus and unleashed a bombardment of fireballs to the ground right above the underground shelter.

Trembling, Tsubasa stepped back and closed the door.

"It is…it is going after the students. It is going to kill them and the military can't do anything about it!"

A sudden impulse made her looked at the assault rifle slung on the bird's "shoulders". But the depression quickly took over. If the powerful beam rifles of Mobile Suits and railgun rounds from the tanks can't even penetrate its armor, what could a small assault rifle do? And did she even had the courage to fight? When she can't even summon the courage to run again?

But there are friends she cherish hiding in that shelter. People who accepted her despite the grave mistake she did. People who cheered her on and supported her who are going to die if no one do anything to stop that monster! But what could she do?

A beeping noise came out from Celeritas's backpack. Celeritas unslung it and unzipped the backpack to find her SoarThrottle vibrating. The screen on the device displayed the blue outlines of an engine, a battery, a beam saber, and a bipedal being with a hologram showing words in both the language of Avianland and the language of this planet: "All pre-flight check complete, Ready to soar!"

Tsubasa was stunned. How would this strange being, alien or not, have a device that use Earth's languages? Does this device belong to Earth? Or…

"Could it be that she is…" Sophi could not believe her luck. She formulated her words a bit, then spoke into the datapad. Lines of words showed on the pad a second later.

"Miss, as you can see, your country's weapon, and I dare say the weapons of this planet cannot defeat that monster. However, we have developed a device that could fight them effectively. However, it is too powerful for our body. But you can. Are you willing to use this power and safeguard this world for the coming conflict?"

Tsubasa was going to yell "Are you crazy?" to the humanoid plant when a loud roar shocked the shack. She was about to hoist herself to the window when a shockwave shattered the glass. A Linear Tank's ruined chassis scraped the roof away as the monster hurled it like a toy.

The horrible dragon flew above them and stared down. Its monoeye gleamed and thick purple slimes dripped down its mouth.

Consequence be damned! If that strange device could save everyone, she will use it!

Tsubasa grabbed the device from the bird and strapped it to her wrist like a watch. Immediately, the lens projected a hologram of an arrow pointing—or clicking—the four icons on the screen. She took a deep breath and put her finger on the icon of an engine. It lighted up.

It was a touch screen!

A savage roar caused Tsubasa to look up. The dragon was closing down on her, fast! She pressed the icon of bipedal being, battery, and beam saber. As all four icons shone brightly, a mechanical voice spoke:

"Avianland Thaumiel Protocal Engaging!"

As the dragon's mouth swallowed her, Tsubasa spoke the first thing that came over to her:

"Emergency Scramble!"

Before the fangs of the dragon closed up, a bright ball of light appeared from the device and permeated Tsubasa's body. Her short blue hair grew longer and added a short and straight tails that looked like the tail feathers of a falcon. A pair of Engine, hexagon in shape, appeared and connected to her back with an exoskeleton-like hardness over her school uniforms. A beam saber with black hilt, not unlike those mounted on Union Flags, appeared in her hand.

Using purely the combat instinct ingrained into her by the device, Tsubasa swiped the sword around and the cyan color blade sliced the snout of the dragon off. The dragon roared in anguish as it leaped off. It was then Tsubasa had a chance to looked at what she had become.

"Strange, I definitely feel more powerful, but…incomplete?"

Celeritas shouted at Tsubasa as she took aim at the dragon with her assault rifle: "We will hold the monster off here. Sophi will lead the other two to safety!"

"Ok." Tsubasa then realized something. "I can understand you now!"

"Must be the SoarThrottle doing the translation. I am Sergeant Celeritas, of Avianland Space Attack Force, by the way." Celeritas knew the importance of knowing who are fighting with you, "And you are?"

"Tsu…Tsubasa Akar, I am from Union." Tsubasa answered, still quite stunned about conversing with an alien entity, "So you are from another world? And a soldier?"

Seeing the dragon was still thrashing on the ground, Celeritas answered. "Me and my companions are from another planet, if that is what you are asking. Alright, if the SoarThrottle is in Emergency Start Up mode, that means it is not at 100% strength. We need to fight carefully."

The dragon crawled to the pile of debris and buried its head inside. Soon, using the debris, its snout regenerated again and it roared again.

Captain Fahid had been very pleased with the performance of the PRNAE, that was, up to when it, minus its snout, suddenly leaped from a shed in pain. He snatched up a binocular and saw a beam saber wielding, engine wearing girl glowing cyan walked out from the shed.

"Is this what they called a grave offense?" Fahid was less than unpleased, "All members, lay down a barrage of railgun rounds at the girl! I want her to disappear."

He then manipulated his PRNAE control unit, trying to order the dragon to ignore the girl.

The dragon locked eyes with Tsubasa, its primal instinct commanded her to destroy this dangerous being. It charged in a straight line toward Tsubasa, ignoring the radio command from its "master".

Tsubasa also locked eyes with the dragon, her combat instinct was already calculating how to defeat her foe. In another part of her brain, she vowed she would take down the dragon to make sure it won't harm more people.

"Celeritas-san, are you afraid of speed?"

"Hell no, I am the fastest Aves on Avianland!"

"Good, then sit on my shoulder, we will slice and dice that flying snake."

After Celeritas got on, Tsubasa started running. Stopped caring about failing, stopped caring about missing expectations, she ran with a clear goal and each step was firm and powerful. Her engines sung as air was accelerated by electric field to high speed, transonic speed, supersonic speed, then finally, hypersonic speed.

Tsubasa flew forward like a blue shooting star, the beam saber was firmly grabbed by both hands. At that instant, a rain of railgun rounds descended on the entire football field, from one end to another. It only took the deadly rain 0.2 second to travel from the muzzles on the roof to the grass.

But Tsubasa was faster. The beam saber grew in length and slice through the dragon's body like a hot knife through butter. Even the mutated armor plating of the dropship cannot stop the blade. The entire dragon was sliced into two halves and then pummeled by thousands of radio active Uranium-238 rounds fired by the mysterious special force. But it is the beam saber's blade that killed the dragon. The condensed energy was specially designed to trigger a massive cellular death of PRNAE's cells.

The dragon vanished in a fiery explosion as a blue lighting dashed out of the killzone.

"That is fun! Tsubasa Akar! You are certainly a…" Celeritas stopped herself as she saw the girl drifted to unconscious. Grey out, she cursed, the emergency start up failed to protect the user from the tremendous positive G forces the acceleration. If not for the body enhancement, the girl would be dead already. Celeritas shouted to the SoarThrottle in a last ditch effort: "Reverse Thrust!".

She looked forward and slammed into a wall before her eyes registered it. She was knocked out and fell to the ground while Tsubasa, still unconscious, went through the wall and two houses behind the wall before stopping.


	2. Contact! Cure Peregrinus V PRNAE Astray!

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

Seeing their monster being destroyed, the mysterious strike force was stunned into silence. A small drizzle fell from the sky, slowly put out the flames in the city.

Fahid snapped back from shock and turned around, facing his soldiers.

"We will look for that girl. We will interrogate her until she told us how did she killed our GORB!"

Right after Fahid finished his sentence, a small cylinder flew from the door and landed in the cluster of soldiers.

"Oh, shi…"

The flashbang exploded in a scream and bright flash, disorienting the mysterious soldiers. In the instant, a group of black cladded soldiers, this time wearing an insignia that looked like three up-side down Vs, rushed onto the top floor from the staircase and started picking off the strike force with ruthless efficiency. When only Fahid and a quarter of his strike force remained, the black-cladded soldiers tied them up and carried them off the top floor. One of them returned to check if anything indicating their existence was left, founding none, and was gone too.

Another team of black cladded soldiers also went to the house where they saw the blue glowing girl smashed into. But to their surprise, they found no one there.

Tsubasa slowly awaken to the sound of someone calling her name. Opening her eyes, she saw the afternoon sunlight being filtered by thick green canopies of the forest beside the school, as well as a blue bird gently slapping her while calling her name. A trio of humanoid plant, flying jellyfish, and butterfly floated beside them.

Then the memory rushed back to her like a tsunami. The mysterious strike force; the monster born from the debris; the four aliens who gave her a strange device; the emergency start up; and she passed out due to a lack of oxygen to her brain.

"Ms. Tsubasa Akar, are you alright? Can you hear me?" The blue bird, Celeritas, waved her wings at Tsubasa.

Tsubasa slowly sat up, which caused Celeritas to let out a breath.

"Phoenix benedicite! You are safe! I am truly very sorry for giving you this burden. Not to mention having you fought in emergency start up mode!"

"No…it is ok, I am the one who decided to use that device…Hey! I could still understand you!" Tsubasa was startled, "Well, is the monster dead?"

The plant humanoid nodded: "Your sword sliced the monster in half, very impressively I'd say. Did you perhaps have some military training?"

"No. Just some martial arts training by my father, who is in the Air Force." Tsubasa said as she shuddered at the memory of the fight, "Oh, right, I need to do this."

She unbuckled the transformation device from her wrist, which caused the exo-skeleton-ish clothing to disappear and her hairstyle to return to normal. She handed the SoarThrottle back to a stunned Celeritas.

"I am sorry, but I am not a soldier. You will have to talk to the Orb's scientists and military and hand over the device to them. I am sure they will have a way to make use of this and defeat the monsters if they come again."

Celeritas slowly took back the device: "But it is your home that is being attacked! Why can't you fight as well?"

"Like I said, I am not a soldier and I shouldn't be fighting. I only fight this time because there is no other choice. Your name sound Latin, and the plant girl there is wearing a roman peplos, so I assume your culture would be like Ancient Greek and Roman where everyone is a soldier and are trained to fight. But this is not how it works on Planet Earth. There are professional soldiers, people like my father, who are dedicated to protect the nation and the people. The rest of us just have to live our lives peacefully." She turned and left for the school.

"But the SoarThrottle is attuned to your biometric! No one else can use it now!" Sophi panicked.

Tsubasa shook her head: "Like I said, I don't want to get into this war! It is not my job to fight big monsters, I am only fourteen! There is a reason the civilize world forbid child soldiers!"

Couldn't come up with any retort, the four Caelums could only stare at Tsubasa as she walked away. It will be a while before Agilis asked:

"Is it really?"

"Looked like it, the rules regulating the combatant's age were set in place by United Nation, a group that were sort of like our Species Alliance, almost three hundred years ago." Sophi studied the documents on the datapad.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Union, Guantanamo Bay

Captain Fahid felt he was tied to something that could be sit on and with a back. His tortured brain tried to come up with a word. Chair, right, he is sitting on a chair.

Waterboarding, sleep deprivation, noise, strong light, solidary confinement, lashing. It was quite unclear whether the pirati copied the aptitude for violence from its original, or we learned the art of interrogation from our duplicates, Captain Fahid thought as he struggled to open his eyes.

"Wanting to talk now?" An eerie voice spoke beside his ear.

Fahid's mind was determined to not give these filthy creatures any satisfaction, yet his body can't take this anymore.

He whimpered.

Outside the interrogation room, a tall an lean man wearing a dark green Calvary Coat with the triple V insignia was observing the torture with disinterest. He turned to a major who also wore the same uniform insignia and said with a dangerous disappointment:

"So you failed to recover the blue glowing girl." His tone was icy.

"We…we searched everywhere around the location!" The major pleaded feebly, "there is no other people around who could carry her away. But by the time we get to the house, the girl is gone! I swear! Commander Goodman, I have done all I can!"

Cmd. Goodman fixed the major with a gaze that were not unlike those from a hungry wolf to its prey. Then his eyes moved away and walked toward the door of the room, beckoning the major to follow him.

"You are right, and I also observed the interesting phenomenon you mentioned. No matter which type of imaging technology we used, we still can't match her face to any humans' that are currently in every country's database. Either she was only disguising as human, or she could use some technology we are yet to know to disrupt our sensor."

The two men walked to a room labeled as a secure communication room. After saluted the guards as protocol dictated and opened the lock with retinal scan, they stepped into the dark room with only a few monitors.

Cmd. Goodman clicked a few buttons and a group of men and women in suits appeared on the screen. A TV screen in the background was showing a white outlined Earth on blue background embraced by a pair of olive leaves. Goodman and the major saluted the group.

"Greetings, Esteemed leaders of the world. I trust that we will get the increase in funding?"

"You aren't the type for diplomacy, aren't you? Commander Goodman?" Chairman Dong of Human Reform League looked at him flatly.

"Of course I knew the art of political talking, Comrade Chairman. But I guess the facts are convincing enough that I don't want to waste both of our time."

"True," President Stegmeyer of the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations replied, "It seemed our worries was not unfounded. The United Nation had already discussed the funding issue. You A-Laws people and its related R&D organization will have a 300% increase in the annual budget. Given the fact that our enemies can operate some sort of giant weapon. We will also provide high-quality Mobile Suits for you."

"Thank you, Mr. President. May I be greedy for a while and asked for your ace pilots and star technicians?" Goodman asked but he already knew the answer.

"Sorry, Goodman." The representative from Advance European Union said. "We had discussed this and decided that we will keep them in our home so when those Underground People came knocking on our door, we can shoo them away."

So they were still jockeying for power and playing the zero sum game when humanity's survival was on the line. Cmd. Goodman bit his finger nail to calm himself down. He did not like their attitude but he knew all good things came in small packages, so he just nodded and played nice. The United Nation granted him a few squadron of VMS-02 Union Blast, MSER-04 Anf, and AEU-05/05 AEU Hellion Perpetuum. A group of trainers and technicians will arrive gradually to train their pilots.

As the screen went black, Cmd. Goodman wanted to scream at the stupidity of the governments. They are all sending out-of-date or unselected prototype MS to fight huge who-knows-what-they-are monsters?

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

Tsubasa weakly stirred the bowl of soup.

"What's wrong? Tsubasa-chan?" Aunt Caldwell asked. "Are you feeling unwell? Or some bad people made fun of you in the school?"

"No no no! I am fine, Aunty! I am fine!" Tsubasa shaked her head and quickly finished the soup.

"I will wash the dishes!"

As she doing her chore, Sophi's and Celeritas's words echoed in her mind.

"Are you willing to use this power and safeguard this world for the coming conflict?"

"But it is your home that is being attacked! Why can't you fight as well?"

"But the SoarThrottle is attuned to your biometric! No one else can use it now!"

Tsubasa sighed.

"Even if I am of age, I will just ruin everything and make a big mess…"

Strangely, she did not remember the battle very well. The memory was hazy and the feeling of adrenaline made it felt like a video game.

She knew it was lucky that she would not have the trauma of killing a human combatant on her mind. Her father, Graham Akar, had woke up several times at night in a seizure after he accidentally killed another test pilot in some sort of competition and could not fall asleep without nightmares for a while after the Fifth Solar Power War. Although he kept his prideful and easy going attitude on the outside, who knew how many scar and burden he was hiding inside?

She returned to her room upstairs and were just about to laid on her bed when she heard a certain blue bird talking.

"So that's why you are afraid of fighting." Celeritas, who was perching on her coat rack, flew down to the rest of the aliens floating or standing on her desk. "It is the…"

"How the hell did you get in here?!" Tsubasa's eyes went wide.

"You didn't close your window." The flying jelly fish pointed at the open window.

"As I have told you, I don't want to be a child soldier!" Tsubasa sighed, "This isn't like in the magic girl show where—you know what, it is. But I am not the main character in some Precure universe where the main protagonist just accepts her identity as the legendary warrior and fighting a battle where she could DIE with a smile! Real humans don't do that! So go to Onogoro Island and give your SoarThrottle to the Morgenroete!"

"And you know what will happen to us when we get there?" Celeritas could not believe the girl could be so cowardly, "They are going to cut us up into pieces to study our innards! You know the legend of your Area 51, where other aliens are being dissected and studied. Just pretended that you care about our wellbeing, can't you?"

Tsubasa was shocked, and slowly felt a little guilty for ignoring their position.

"Besides, our species are regrettably similar." The plant humanoid spoke in a serious tone, "If such advanced technology fell into the hands of the big blocs, or even Orb itself. Its powers could entice any government into a frenzy of conquest and stir up wars. This advanced technology must be kept to secret, to protect this world from more conflict."

"But isn't this just a device for storing the jet engine exoskeleton?" Tsubasa asked curiously, "To increase the strength of the users to fight big monsters?"

"No, it is much dangerous than that." Sophi pointed at the blue SoarThrottle in Celeritas's wings, "the device's manual is unlocked after you used it, and…and it is a…a transformation device."

"This is serious science fiction level of stuff, I know." Agilis held up two tentacles in a vaguely human fashion as if saying: "whatever".

Celeritas pressed the hologram lens, which glowed and displayed a holographic document.

"The monster you saw today is called a Possessive RNA Exterminator, or PRNAE." Sophi explained while Tsubasa read on despite the shock to find the document was already translated into Japanese. "When it came into contact with a carbon-based organism, it will corrupt their cell by destroying the original RNA—although since beings on Avianland don't have RNA, we don't completely understand this—and insert their own RNA to create alien protein and alter cell structures. Most cells will die, but some cells will be able to survive the transformation and turn into more PRNAE. When it came into contact of non-organic material, it will stick to it and warp and contort it into a physical body—which is how that monster is born from the debris. The SoarThrottle is designed by our ancestors to unleash the power of a PRNAE Counter Unit. It could transform carbon-based organism to a form that oscillates between physical object and energy, thus rendering it unable to be manipulated by PRNAE. The higher the oscillation goes, the more powerful the Unit will be."

"This sound a lot like a Precure show but the Unit part at the end just bring the whole thing from super robot to real robot show." Tsubasa looked at them with a deadpan.

"Excuse...me?" Opacitas, whose sudden speaking caused everyone to look back at the meek butterfly. "What is this Precure you are referring to?"

"Precures are a show about magical…about girls with tremendous powers that can fly, can throw punches, and can shoot particle beams. They are being referring to as 'the Legendary Warrior'—which I am not and I have no intention of being one that goes out and fight a desperate battle that has a high attrition rate." Tsubasa pull out a book from her bookbag and pop on her bed to read.

"Damn it, Tsubasa," Celeritas gritted her beaks, "If my old drill sergeant hears you he will go nuts for your cowardice and slap you in the face."

"I am not a coward, but I know that I am not able to fight an entire war." Tsubasa did not bother to look up from the book, "Besides, my dad has slapped me before—just to tell you I am not some spoiled brat that lack a stern figure back in home. But seriously, I mean, why can't you just sneak into Morgenroete and leave them on the desk of Chief Engineer Simmons?"

"Check your mobile communication devices 's Public Information Informer and you will see why we don't trust any government." Celeritas pull out an energy packet and ate it.

"You mean my phone's news app." Sighing, Tsubasa put down her book and swipe open her phone. She clicked the news app and was stunned.

The entire site is dominated by the news of the exposed coup plot of Rondo Mina Sahaku and Rondo Gina Sahaku. The Sahaku family were plotting to use the economic power of Union businessmen to manipulate Orb into a financial crisis, and usurping power from all of the rest of the noble families. The police had arrested Rondo Mina Sahaku, but her brother escaped to the Morgenroete Factory on the Ame No Mihashira Military satellite and re-entered Earth using MBF-P01-ReAMATU Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu. The military was still searching for him and his dangerous Mobile Suit.

"As you can see, even a country of peace can nurture someone as dangerous as these Sahaku human," Sophi said, "That is why we don't want to give this power to the local government. Since only you and Celeritas can touch and use that blue SoarThrottle, no one else could study it and expose the power within."

"Shit, then…why, why does this always happen to me!" Tsubasa yelled and was going to threw the book to the group of aliens when she managed to stop herself.

"Tsubasa?" Her aunt was calling out for her, "Are you alright, what happened"

"Nothing! Aunty! I just accidentally turn up the TV's volume!"

"Oh, don't stay up too late!"

"Can you tell me what happened?" Sophi float over and held out her vine, "During that competition. That's what had been bothering you, right?"

"Ah, you bastards!" Tsubasa threw her pillow at Sophi, who agilely dodge it and let it smashed onto Celeritas. Then she turned around and burned her head in the bed. "You researched my history, don't you!"

"It was just one game-" Celeritas was going to shout when Sophi wrap a vine around her beak, effectively silenced her.

"I believe your present depression is not due to just losing the International Youth Sprint Competition. You have a role-model, descent training, numerous competition experience, good judgement, and a courage to follow that judgement. That means even if you lose the competition, you will rise again immediately and fight. So, are you willing to tell me the truth that no one bothered to ask and understand?" Sophi asked in a sincere tone.

The room was so silent the mechanical sound of the clock could be heard. Finally, Tsubasa answered:

"How do you know no one asked and try to understand?"

"As I had said, our species were regrettably similar, including our lapses and failures in the…what is the word in human language…personality. I also have been burdened with unrealistic expectations and hardships no one tried to understand before, so that's why I understand since you have the same eyes I used to had."

"How…how could they treat you so badly?" Opacitas was brimming with tear, "You are a great Caelum that had help Avianland for so long!"

"Tsubasa, I am sorry." Unexpected by everyone, Celeritas landed beside Tsubasa and bowed in apology, "I have not considered your feeling and your story when I am asking you to fight. But whether you will want to fight in the future, you and me were Sisters-In-Arms in a fight. And Sisters-In-Arms never let anyone left behind. Let me share your burden, please."

Tsubasa looked at the blue bird for a few second, eyes to eyes. At the end, she decided to trust the sincerity that are not unlike her father's in the eyes of this extra-terrestrial being.

"It was my first time being able to compete in an international game. I was so excited, but as I was practicing, people started telling me this was not just about me. My coaches, my classmates, my teachers, especially the people working in MSWAD burdened me with the task of bringing glory and the first gold medal of the IYSC for the powerful and righteous Union. My parents told me it was right to be loaded with expectations, it will make me go further and become stronger like my father. And I trained and practiced hard for the competition because I wanted to win and I wanted these people to be happy. But…but…I."

Two drops of tear slowly emerged from the corner of Tsubasa's eyes as Celeritas's eyes widen: "Don't tell me…"

"I practiced day and night, sunny or raining. But on the day of the competition, I caught a cold and fever. It was raining on that day, and there is nine of us on each line. I tried, I really tried, I overtaken everyone else and the finish line is near, but then I felt dizzy. Next thing I know was waking up in a hospital. Then they told me I failed before the finish line, they told me I disgraced my country. I no longer have friends, and then my parent send me here."

Each Caelum digested Tsubasa's words in silent.

It was Celeritas who spoke up first: "Let's give her some peace, we have done enough."

"Thank you, Celeritas-san." Tsubasa mumbled.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Union, MSWAD Edwards Airforce Base

"Tsubasa-chan still didn't call us tonight, huh." A blonde hair man said as he stood on a raised platform staring at a black and imposing mobile suit.

"I do wonder where this temper came from." A dirty blonde hair woman smiled sadly as her fingers danced across the keypad. "But we are indeed responsible for her depression."

"It is my fault." The man's grip on the guard rail tightened, "I should have told her to run for herself, I should have told her to look after her own body. But I treat her as myself rather than my daughter. I am not worthy of being Tsubasa's father!"

"Graham, how are you going to properly care about her if you don't start taking care of yourself?" the woman stopped typing on the computer terminal, her voice was more than slightly displease, "You are always looking for adrenaline rush without proper safety measure. I have complete faith in your ability, but that doesn't mean I won't worry every time you take off in your Flag. Not to mention your reckless behavior always cause a lot of stress on your own body and your MS."

"Katakiri…" Graham Akar, Union's prideful ace MS pilot, lowered his head in shame.

"Katakiri is right!" A grey hair man climbed out from the black MS's cockpit.

"Professor Elfman!" Graham Akar was embarrassed and quickly looked around. Lucky for him, no one else was around to hear his wife chiding him.

"You are too obsessed with adrenaline rush and the apex of power without even thinking what is true strength!" The elderly professor climbed down from the MS and walked toward the platform. "True strength is to fight to keep everyone alive! Fight, and live to fight another day rather than die without protecting those who needs to be protect, who need you to be around."

Katakiri Mikoto leaned over the rail: "I take it that Professor will ignore my stupid husband's word about disregarding the effect of the high-G maneuver to the pilot?"

"I used technology from AEU's Enact to decrease the effect of the G forces on the pilot." Professor Elfman pointed at the black MS, "Now, this SVMS-01E Union Flag Graham Aker Custom could handle this lad's reckless piloting without putting too much stress on his body."

"Thank you Professor! I still need time to think around, but I think you may have pointed a way for me!" Graham leaned over the rail and shouted.

"Take good care of Tsubasa-chan!" Professor Elfman walked back to the cockpit of the custom Flag, remembering the fond memory when the Akar couple brought their daughter along when visiting him. "She is a good girl."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, 5000 meters underground, Makkal Surfacing Ship launching facility.

Illuminated by the roaring magma river beside him, a humanoid with huge blocky muscle walked toward a group of black-clad soldiers standing in ram-rod attention. On a closer look, these soldiers were mantis-like insects with sharp blade under their front limbs. Instead of a pair of eyes, their mouth emitted a high-frequency wave and locate their preys and predators with echolocation. Just like the last group, these soldiers were also carrying assault rifles and railguns. Upon seeing the approaching figure, the soldiers saluted with a Roman salute.

"Pucci!" The humanoid addressed the insects, "follow me."

The Puccies followed the humanoid toward the huge landing ship. As the insects went aboard one by one, the humanoid walked to a group of figures in robes.

"Is the preparation done?" The humanoid asked as he took out a flask and inhaled something from it. "We don't want to keep Fahid waiting."

"It is done, Captain Munda." One of the robed figure waved and the rest followed him and Captain Munda toward the landing ship. "We will finally be able to seized what should rightfully be ours. It was a very excitable moment."

"Yes, it is." Captain Munda said, "How is your daughter, by the way?"

"Nāḷai was hitting puberty," the robed figure chuckled. "It was her birthday today and I am suppose to be at her party. And because of my deployment, she had an argument with me. Calling me ignoring the daughter for a meaningless patch of surface land. I must be a failure of a father, right? Captain?"

"Don't worry, Techpriest Antora," Munda pat the figure's shoulder, "She would understand one day. Aren't we fighting for our children's future right now?"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat

Since the damage done to the campus was too severe, the school board decided to give everyone a break while work crews rebuild the school. Thus, Tsubasa did not set her alarm.

She was in the middle of dreaming of swimming in grape jelly when she felt something landed on her face. Then, she heard a sharp whistle.

"Ouch!" She jumped out of her bed before her brain even started functioning.

"Wake up! The sun is shining and the breakfast is calling!"

"Celeritas?" Tsubasa looked at the blue bird with beady eyes. "Why are you ruining my perfect dream? I don't need to wake up this early! And humans don't eat worms!"

"I know!" Celeritas flew and landed on her shoulder, "I just want to find someone to go out with!"

"Ha?" Tsubasa questioned, "To look for worms?"

"To do morning work out of course!" Celeritas pull out a water canteen. "As a dedicated soldier of the Avianland Space Attack Force, it is my duty to maintain my body in perfect condition!"

"Right, right, Ms. Soldier." Tsubasa was going to return to the warmth of the bed, "Why don't you go get your other buddies?"

"They are not caelums of physical exertion, but you are!" Celeritas landed on the bed. "When I was back in Avianland, I am always surrounded by my comrades-in-arms. But now, I am the only one left, and doing this alone always felt like I am reminding myself this…so…"

A few drops of tear dripped out from her eyes.

Tsubasa looked at the tiny form and thought about her situation. Her friends and families might already been slaughtered by the horrible creatures, "people" who she ate with, trained with, and bled with had died and she was the only one left. The survivor's guilt must be tough on her.

_Father's nightmare…_

"Alright, I will go with you."

Tsubasa opened her wardrobe, staring right into a blue and white hoodie and a black armband. After a few while, she grabbed them and started putting her training gears that she hadn't touch for a whole month on.

After grabbing a water bottle and leaving a note, Tsubasa slowly jogged out from the front door with Celeritas flying above her. Tsubasa reminded Celeritas that since she hadn't run for a month, she need to do this slowly.

"Well, you will run fast once you catch the wave." Celeritas chirped.

"No…" Tsubasa shook her head. "There is no way."

"I don't dare to say I know you very well." Celeritas looked downward, "But the battle we fought yesterday showed that you had not give up completely yet. You can still run."

"That is because I will die if I just stand there like an idiot!" Tsubasa yelled, "It is not like I have any choice. Unlike you, I am not a soldier."

"Technically," Celeritas glided down so she could look at Tsubasa eye to eye, "I won't be a soldier today if not for those horrible monsters."

"You are drafted?"

"Not exactly. Our government know the monsters are coming, thus they scouted a lot of gifted caelums into the military. And yours truly is the fastest Aves on Avianland."

"No wonder you are not afraid of the speed, you fighter jock." Tsubasa took a sip of water.

"Actually, I am an Adiutrix, the soldiers in charge of boarding enemy ships."

Seeing the depressive face, Tsubasa knew she accidentally invoked Celeritas's dark memory.

"Sorry, I should not mention that."

They ran in silent, absorbing warmth from the rising sun. Seeing the golden lights reflect on the ocean brought a faint smile on Tsubasa's faces and a yelp of surprise from Celeritas.

"There is no such sight back in your home world?" Tsubasa asked.

"No. Avianland is a gas giant, with only floating continents surrounding a half-liquid and half-solid core. That's why a lot of views in your planet is so interesting." Celeritas said.

A squadron of Heli flew over them as they dashed toward some unknown destination. This invoked a piece of Tsubasa's own memory.

"When I am training and practicing in the past, I am literally practicing with the aces in MSWAD." Tsubasa looked up with a dreamy expression. "As I am running, I can always see them piloting Realdos and Flags and do very amazing things with their Mobile Suits. I will wave at them, and they will shake their wings at me. Before any competition, my dad will always do a low fly-pass above me to cheer me up."

Then the happiness disappeared. "I guess he just gave me too much pressure."

"Then why don't we forget about it?" Celeritas knocked Tsubasa's head with her beak.

"What?!" Tsubasa raised her arms to protect her head.

"Maybe it is because I grew up without knowing who my parent is, I don't really have someone to put that much expectation on me. Whenever someone challenge me in a race, I just run for the sake of myself and enjoy every minute of the run—and every minute of laughing at the loser." Looking at the glittering water, Celeritas said.

"Enjoying every minute of the race huh," Tsubasa looked toward the sky. "I am not sure I could do that anymore."

"You can!" Celeritas looked back and brought out a mirror, "Because you are running and you are laughing right now!"

Tsubasa looked down to her leg. Instead of jogging slowly like she was expecting, she was running at full speed. And the face in the mirror was not clouded by sadness and depression, it was engulfed by a smile.

"You still love running, Tsubasa." Celeritas landed on her head. "And you aren't going to give it up!"

"Looks like it…" Tsubasa slowly laughs, the first time since long time ago. "And get off my head! My hairs are all messed up!"

Suddenly, loud air raid siren blared across the shore. The sound of beam rifle discharging was almost covered by the loud shriek. The silhouette of a gold and black Mobile Suit slowly emerged from the sun as it raised its abnormally large right arm and fired something off it. A large field of explosions soon occurred.

"That is the MS of the leader of the coup attempt!" Both shouted.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Sea near Olofat

Rondo Gina Sahaku muttered a curse upon releasing the Lancer Darts from the "Trikeros Kai" Offensive Shield System. Because this suit was still unfinished and are not in sortie condition when he stole it, each round of ammunition he used was one more second close to capture or death. He knew he can't outrun the entire Orb military, and the constant beeping told him his Ultracompact energy battery was almost dry. Without its "Maga no Ikutachi" Energy Absorption Claw to extract energy from other Mobile Suits, the advanced "Phase Shift" armor will fail and he will die under a fusillade of railgun rounds like a criminal executed by a fire squad.

Which was probably what will be waiting for him if he were captured.

Just as Rondo turned his MS around and prepared to flee into the city. A sharp beeping indicated something huge was closing on him from underwater, and fast!

Just as he engaged thrusters to escape, a huge black dropship leaped out of water like an orca and barely missed the golden MS. However, the attached propeller did not and smashed onto the Amatsu. The powerful collision drained the rest of the energy away and the mangled propeller housing locked the powerless MS inside.

It was only due to the fast maneuver by Munda that the dropship did not fall back to the water. By pushing the right boosters to maximum thrust, the drop ship overcame the angular momentum and continued forward.

"Alright, Pucci team, we are going to land!" Munda bellowed, "Techpriests, start mixing PRNAEs! Down with the Pirati!"

"Ooorah!" The insects screeched and the humanoids cheered.

The dropship landed on a sandy beach on its bellies. the ram in front of the ship slowly dropped down and fully armed Puccis marched down the ramp, scanning around for enemies.

"That is a rather cold welcome." Captain Munda frowned. Then he walked to the back of the dropship and inspected the mangled bipedal robot.

"Team A and B, secure the perimeter! Team C! Help the Techpriests unload that uninvited robot from our ship."

As Techpriests swarmed over the robot and dismembering it, and the insect commandos patrolled the perimeters, they failed to notice two figures observing them while hiding behind a turn of the nearby freeway.

"They are the invaders of yesterday!" Tsubasa whispered. "But why are they only launching one small group of landing forces at a time? And they don't even look human?"

"So they aren't from this planet?" Celeritas tried to suppress the anger she felt to herself for forgetting to bring her rifle along.

"No, I don't think so. But what are they doing to the Amatsu?" Tsubasa said as they saw mechanical claws emerged from the dropship and start ripping armor plates and weapons off from the Mobile Suit. "Are they studying it?"

"Hey, that symbol looked like your planet!" Celeritas pointed at the dropship's emblem.

The strange emblem Tsubasa noticed yesterday looked like a pair of human hands embracing a blue sphere that had a huge green patch of uneven shape.

"Really? That don't look like our planet at all!" Tsubasa deadpanned.

After a few more minutes of watching, Tsubasa smacked her head.

"Ah, I am so stupid!"

She took out her cellphone and dialed the number of the local police.

"Hello? I am at the Haifuri Shoreline near Olofat." Tsubasa whispered as she observed the invaders. "I just saw the Amatsu shot down a few chasing Astrays!"

"Haifuri Shorelines, you say?" The AI on the other side of the line replied, "Alright, we will notify the military. Thank you for your cooperation."

"There is more! The Astray collided with a dropship similar to the one invading Olofat and dropping special forces and monsters yesterday! The dropship landed and the invaders seems to be studying the Amatsu!"

"What? There is no monster in anywhere." A person replied this time, "The dropship and the commandos are Sahaku's thugs who are going for the coup. We have retrieved your location and a military force will be dispatched to take care of the rebels. Please get away from that place as soon as you can."

"He is right, we need to move." Celeritas put her wing on Tsubasa's arm. "He is going to dispose of both the invaders and us!"

"Why? We are the witness of what?" Tsubasa was confused.

"The monster had done a good number on the local military, but there is no news about the monster anywhere on your planet's internet. It is clear that there is an effort to censor the information to keep the invasion under wraps." Celeritas said as they started backtracking.

"But why are they keeping us from knowing about it?" Tsubasa was even more confused.

"I don't know. If this is any consolation, my government also pull this on us…Oh shit."

Tsubasa turned around and was instantly filled with fear. Three insect commandos stood in front of them and pointed their assault rifles at the duo.

Unbeknownst to them, at the instant Tsubasa dialed her cellphone, the ELINT device inside the dropship had detected the signal. Knowing an enemy force might be on the way, Munda sent three most stealthy Pucci soldiers to kill the hostile spy and told the Techpriests to stop studying everything they don't know and instead stripping the robot of every armor and weapon they can't recognize and use that robot as the base for the PRNAE.

What saved Tsubasa and Celeritas was the ego of the enemy soldiers. Seeing their enemy had no weapon, the leading Pucci grinned and dropped his rifle, motioning his underlings to not interfere in the fist-fight.

"Tsubasa, I have the SoarThrottle in my backpack." Celeritas turned to Tsubasa.

"Ah, you are still trying to get me to do fighting!"

Celeritas rolled her eyes: "Well, if you want to fight them as a human, be my guest."

"Tch, guess there is no way out of it." Tsubasa pull out the blue device from Celeritas's backpack and strapped it on herself. Upon making contact with her skin, the device glowed and activated.

Luckily, the Puccis thought this was a gauntlet and made no attempt to attack.

Remembering what she did yesterday, Tsubasa pressed the icon for engine, pilot, battery, and weapon. The same mechanical voice announced as the touch screen glows.

"Avianland Thaumiel Protocal engaged!"

The hologram displayed an activation interface similar to those of a mobile suit.

"**P**ossessive **R**NA **E**xterminator **C**ounter **U**nit **RE**designed activating!"

"This thing is really called a PRECURE? Kudos to your acronym department." Tsubasa's eye rolled while her enemies groaned. "Then what…"

Tsubasa's eyes fell on the lever: "It could not be…"

She grabbed the lever and pushed with all her might. As soon as the throttle reached the halfway point, a blinding light erupted from the machine and engulfed Tsubasa. Celeritas was just gawking at the turn of the event when she turned into a beam of light and entered the blue light ball.

"What…is that!" Munda and the rest of the invaders stare at the powerful blue glow.

Floating at a dark and timeless limbo, Tsubasa can't feel her hands, her legs, or even her body. She can't hear, she can't see, she can't smell, and she can't even talk.

"Am I dead?" Tsubasa wondered, then it hit her. She was still thinking, she was still alive!

"No, I am not dead yet! Move! Tsubasa! Move, I still have things I need to do, something I just found out that I still love to do from the bottom of my heart. I still need to win the Sprint Competition, I can't die yet!"

A slight shock, almost as if her body and her mind was calling her, calling for her return. Tsubasa stretched her non-existing arms and legs and ran toward that faint "feeling".

"I won't die here! I will defeat these monsters, and continue running! Move! Precure!"

At that instant, a glowing cyan Peregrine Falcon swooped into her view. As the shining bird entered her body, countless Terabytes of information rush back into her conscious. Her limbs, her gears, and new knowledge of how to use them to defeat monsters, Tsubasa can feel them all. And what she felt strongest, was that burning determination that surrounded her body! Not wishing this feeling to dissipate, she pushed her legs forward and ran. Faintly, she could see the insect charged toward her, with its arm blade in front of its ugly body. Unconsciously, Tsubasa knelt and spring up from under the blade.

Opening her eyes, she saw a glowing fingerless glove with a decoration that looked like a JATO rocket belching white smoke. In front of the gloved right hand, on the wall before her, was the carcass of the insect and its disgusting body fluid.

"Did…I do it?" Tsubasa was awed. She looked down and saw a blue and white normal suit style body-fitting blouse with a four-wing shaped decoration on her chest and a deep blue skirt that looked like dancing flames. She was wearing a pair of high heels that were outfitted with wheels and rocket engines on where the heels were. Tsubasa looked left and right and saw her blouse was short-sleeved with a polygonal armored shoulder guard. From the widen eyes of the insect soldiers, she can see her hair was tied in a short twin tail that looked like the wings of a peregrinus falcon using a hairpiece that looked like a small tiara and the light communication device on the head of a MS. The biggest surprise is the large engine on her back that looked like a jet engine—but she can' see any turbine blades.

"How…what the hell are you!" The frightened insect soldiers screeched.

Remembered the Peregrine Falcon in her vision, Tsubasa poised as if sprinting, with her left hand balled into a fist and put in front of her chest, and her right arm swung to the back.

"Reach our future with blinding speed! Cure Peregrinus!"

"Stupid Pirati, die!" The insects pulled out their assault rifle and took aim at the girl.

"You dishonorable…" Tsubasa charged at the insects. Within microseconds, she stopped a few meters behind them and the insects' bodies were now in four pieces.

"That will teach you not to mess with humans!" Tsubasa spoke without looking back.

"Lord Captain! We have lost connection with Patrol A-1!" A pucci soldier screeched.

"They are here now? Good, it will be a pleasure to crush them." Munda grabbed a headset and spoke: "02,05,18,75,48, enter!"

A large shadow rose behind the dropship. Disassembled by the Techpriests and assimilated by PRNAE, the Amatsu was covered with purple veins and strange biological outgrowths like horns and bone spikes.

Being an unholy combination of machine and flesh, the PRNAE was designed to obey any order inputted by its controller. After receiving another set of command from Munda, the PRNAE walked toward the last known location of the group of Pucci sent to intercept the spy.

Tsubasa, or at this time, Cure Peregrinus, decided that the fighting is done and decided to transform back by easing the throttle or unbuckling the device.

"It won't budge!" No matter how hard Peregrinus pulled, the throttle is not budging.

"That is because the PRNAE is still around! Tsubasa!" A hologram emerged from the lens, showing a purple dot stalking toward their location.

"Again?" It was then Peregrinus realized Celeritas's voice is coming out of the device itself! "Celeritas-san, why are you inside that SoarThrottle thing?"

"Because you are a 'unit', and I am the pilot of the said unit." Celeritas sounded like she was reading off a script.

"I am not a Mobile Suit!"

"It comes! Get ready!"

The PRNAE's head slowly raise from behind the hill like a certain giant in a certain anime. Peregrinus gasped.

"It is disgustingly ugly! What is this thing, infected Terran mech?"

"It looked like the coup leader's Mobile Suit!" Celeritas shouted, "They seemed to have stripped it of armor and weapon and possess the carcass with PRNAE!"

With a feral roar, the PRNAE jumped into the sky, intended to smash the precure with his body.

"You think I'd let you!" Peregrinus dashed away, then asked Celeritas, "Do I have anything other than a beam sword?"

"Here!"

The beam sword glowed, then turned into a rifle that looked similar to her father's "Trident Striker" linear rifle. But when Peregrinus raised her rifle and fired, a stream of particle beam shot out from the muzzle. The cyan beam detonated on the PRNAE, causing it to scream in pain. Peregrinus was surprised at the lack of recoil and the deceptive look, but quickly ejected that thought to prepare for combat.

Munda was not pleased, that Pirati female can actually hurt their most powerful biological weapon! Knowing a threat when he saw one, Munda ordered his all of his Pucci team to surround the girl and attack in unison with the PRNAE until there is nothing left.

"Peregrinus! The enemy is trying to surround us!" Celeritas warned, "You are a Mobile Suit, so start mobiling!"

"Again, I am not a Mobile Suit!" Peregrinus jumped to the side to avoid another blow from the PRNAE, "You can see the enemy soldier?"

"Yes! Four on 2 o'clock position!"

Peregrinus raised her gun and fired, the energy bolt vaporized the Pucci bugs on detonation. She jumped again and landed a rocket-assisted swinging kick on the PRNAE, sending it spiralling to the ground.

"Three on 7 o'clock! They are setting up something!"

A stream of laser hit Peregrinus, its heat and thermal shock failed to penetrate Peregrinus's energized skin, but it was the most painful thing she ever felt.

"Damn! It stings like hell!" She yelped with eyes closed.

"Focus! Fire when they are reloading!" Celeritas shouted.

"Where are they? I can't see them!" frozen by the pain, she couldn't open her eyes.

Inside Peregrinus, Celeritas looked at the radar screen and decided to take control.

"She is going to be mad with me." Celeritas mumbled.

Under Celeritas's control, Peregrinus's arm raised up and fired at the direction of the Pucci anti-tank team. A glowing fireball and the disappeared bio signal indicated their demise.

"Celeritas, did you just controlled me?"

"I got to!" Celeritas said, "You are all screaming and stopped moving. That is a sure death on a battlefield you know."

"Urrh. That's disturbing." Peregrinus replied as she flew around the PRNAE, shooting plasma bolts at that monster while dodging its punches. "Just what it takes to destroy these monsters!"

"Looks like the energy bolt from the gun can clean off a patch of PRNAE and destroy a part of its base structure, but it will take too long to destroy using that gun alone!"

"Damn it!" Peregrinus put a way the gun and dashed to the front of the PRNAE and threw a series of punches and kicked it into the ground, "Is there a core or something we could destroy?"

"A core?" Celeritas looked through the screen, "I can't see any on the screen!"

"What screen?" Peregrinus narrowly dodged a RPG and drop punched the Pucci, smashing it to bits.

"I am sitting in somewhere inside you that looked like the cockpit of a Starfighter. I can see what you see and a radar screen, and your vital signal, but that is it."

"Oh, blast you!" raging at the tough monster, Peregrinus put all her effort on her foot as she prepared for a kick. Rockets on the heel of the boot roared as a roundhouse kick blew up the head of the monster.

"Tch! That is only the main camera!" Captain Munda spitted, "14, 17, 55, 89, shoot!"

The monster stood up and raised its right arm at Peregrinus as if trying to shoot her. However, there is no gun.

"Captain, we have already offloaded all of the walker's weapons and ammunitions!" A techpriest shouted.

"Fuck you!"

"Well that is embarrassing." Celeritas smirked. "Wait! There is something inside the robot!"

Peregrinus looked in from the gaping hole where the head used to be. A pulsing blob of purple was inside its chest, extending veins and arteries to everywhere haphazardly on its surface.

"Of course!" Peregrinus said, "That is the cockpit of the MS!"

She brought out her gun and fired three round rapid at the chest of the monster, opening a crack each time. But without waiting for her getting another shot in, its armor regenerated.

"If long range took too long!"

She dashed toward the monster, the gleaming beam saber in hand. A horizontal cut sliced into the monster, but can't go forward anymore. She willed the engine on her back to push, but despite her effort, the sword was stuck.

"Come on!"

A large fist swung into her body, punching the wind out of her and threw her into the hill, making a big crater.

"Peregrinus, you need to destroy that thing now, your system can't take that kind of attack again!" Celeritas shouted into the intercom.

"I am trying!" Peregrinus looked at the SoarThrottle, just in time to see the icons flashed in succession. "Can't it be…"

She pushed the icons of Engine, Pilot, Weapon, and Fuel, and a message flashed:

"Final Action initiated, require directive!"

"I am seeing all of the energy is converging at the capacitor all over your body and synchronizing, you have a lot of power to use in one go, but that is it!"

"Then the attack must be able to penetrate its armor before it regenerates!" Peregrinus dodged another barrage of punches from the PRNAE, "Think, think!"

A memory flow into her brain, a small conversation from a few years ago.

"Daddy, how do you defeat of the terrorists hiding under the sand? Wouldn't the sand recover the hole every time you blow it up?" A little Tsubasa asked her pilot father.

"There is a satellite in the orbit, where a lot of rods the size of telephone poles are stored." Graham Akar said, "When a rod is dropped from space, it generated a lot of energy. We will guide that rod to the top of the terrorists, then the terrorists will be gone!"

[Insert Only my Railgun]

"Right…" Peregrinus drop kicked the PRNAE and jumped away. She glared at the monster will a cold smile, "Speed is my forte, and kinetic energy is one half the mass…"

She pushed the throttle to maximum power. In that instant, her body glowed cyan blue and her engine sung with a sparkling blue exhaust. "Times the square of…"

She put one foot at the front and one foot at the back, as if preparing for a sprint.

"Velocity!"

She sprung from the ground and flew toward the PRNAE. Her body slowly turned into energy, and emerged as a glowing peregrine falcon.

"Precure! Kinetic Smash!"

Peregrinus penetrated the monster's armor and sliced through the core of the monster. Leaving a gaping hole through its front and back. Destabilized, the PRNAE frozen and sparks started to fly off it. The cyan glowing falcon turned back into Cure Peregrinus and landed on the ground.

"That is our…" Celeritas shouted.

"Terminal Velocity!" Peregrinus answered.

The PRNAE exploded in a purple fire ball.

"What the hell happened!" Munda stared in disbelief.

"This is Techpriest Biscard Antora. A glowing blue humanoid just defeated and destroyed the PRNAE. Target is capable of flight, high speed dash, and gun and sword attack with a kinetic attack that can overwhelm the PRNAE's regenerative ability. Thus the report is complete. For a pure Maṉitaṉiṉ Nilam!"

"What are you doing!" Munda shouted at Biscard.

"Look at the sky!"

A squadron of Union Blast flew overhead, then six artillery shells bracketed the entire dropship. Five helicopters moved in from the mountain, fast-roping A-Laws commandos on the ground and surrounded the dropship as they battled with the insect commandos. A small chopper drone broadcasted a message:

"This is the military force of the Earth, throw down your weapon and surrender or no mercy will be granted!"

"They know our language!" Biscard was stunned.

"Like hell we will!" Munda raised his assault rifle and ran to the landing ramp.

He was just about to shoot when a hole appeared in his forehead. The large humanoid was dead before he dropped to the ground.

Biscard smashed the button that closed the landing ramp, then ran to the pilot seat. They need to get these Pirati tech to their comrades and they needed to do it now!

The dropship slowly raised from the ground under the futile small arms fire from the ground troop. Biscard was about to start getting the ship into submerge mode when the ship's engines exploded. Three Union Blast moved past him and turned around, a plasma blade hanging underneath the transformable MS.

"No!"

The plasma blade sliced into the cockpit, killing Biscard. The dropship is heavily damaged and dropped into the sea with a big splash.

"That is awesome!" Celeritas applauded. "Your military rocks!"

"No, they don't seems to belong to any country." Peregrinus said as she gazed at the soldiers and vehicles, "I don't remember that triple inverted V logo. And that MS is Bell's Union Blast, a cancelled model. Why is it here?"

"If I am right, this maybe conspiracy material." Celeritas summed up, "We should leave."

"Right." Peregrinus pull the throttle back. With a blue spark, she returned to normal.

"Tsubasa?! You are…And what is that blue bird?"

Shocked, Tsubasa turned around and saw a group of soldiers pointing rifles at her while looking at their officer, who was mouth agape at her.

"Lieutenant Colonel Barack Zinin?!" Tsubasa stammered, "Didn't you transferred to space?"

"You know this guy?" Celeritas looked at both of them.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Olofat shoreline, South Pacific

A blocky construct slowly rose from under the water. It was shaped like the dropship that attacked the country twice, but this time, it was modified to be a submarine instead.

Inside,


	3. Sing! Cure Iris, Mission of Peace!

Disclaimer: some of the terms and names of location shown belongs to Gundam 00 and Gundam Seed of Sunrise; The insert song _Mizu no Akashi-Token of Water_ belongs to Gundam Seed and Sung by: Tanaka Rie, Lyrics by: Kajiura Yuki, Music by: Kajiura Yuki. The concept of precure belongs to the Precure franchise of Toei. The OC belongs to me.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Haifari Shoreline

"Tsubasa?! You are…And what is that blue bird?"

Shocked, Tsubasa turned around and saw a group of soldiers pointing rifles at her while looking at their officer, who was mouth agape at her.

"Lieutenant Colonel Barack Zinin?!" Tsubasa stammered, "Didn't you transferred to space?"

"You know this guy?" Celeritas looked at both of them.

"He used to work with my father in MSWAD, but I thought he went to Orbital Elevator Defence Regiment!"

"Put your guns down!" Zinin ordered his soldiers.

He then walked to Tsubasa, "Come with me, this is getting way out of control."

"What is out of control?" Tsubasa gasped, "You are not going to dissect me, aren't you?"

Zinin rolled his eyes: "We are not bloody mad doctors, but we need to know what is turning you into a Mahou Shoujo so we can defeat those monsters."

"Hold on, how will we know you are not going to dominate the world with these technologies?" Celeritas flew in front of Tsubasa.

Zinin stared at the blue bird, then pointed at his ears and shook his head.

"Celeritas meant that he doesn't know if you will use that technology to take over the world." Tsubasa translated

"You can hear what it said?"

Tsubasa nodded.

"Alright." Zinin said, "Tell this bird alien that we already took over the world so it can stop worrying about misuse of tech."

"Really?"

"In a way, it is. Union, HRL, and AEU are already the masters of the planet. Any way, just come with me. If another group sees you then it is going to be much worse. If it is me, I can still put in a few good words for you."

Tsubasa thought for a sec, then realized that she doesn't really have much choice in this matter when there are armed soldiers from some shadowy organization everywhere.

"Fine."

"You can't be serious! Tsubasa, we can't hand over this tech to everyone!" Celeritas hovered in front of Tsubasa's face.

"What choice do we have? We can't escape, and they are here to fight monsters, we can only go with the flow and see how it will take us. Or you want to die meaninglessly?"

Celeritas fumed, but she knew Tsubasa was right.

The group entered a helicopter as Zinin spoke, "Men, we have not seen any transforming maho shoujo, is that clear?"

"Yes, Sir."

He turned to Tsubasa: "You just sit tight and let me do the talking."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Underground Kingdom Makkal, High Atrium

"Did we managed to salvage that dropship?" A cold, metallic voice came out from a fluid tank.

"Yes, your Majesty." A biomechanical Android replied with equally emotionless tone, "The technology of the Pirati bipetal walker is being studied."

"What about the report about a transforming Pirati female?" The Emperor of the kingdom asked from his life-sustaining fluid tank, "Had my general thought up a response?"

"General Zern and his lieutenants are discussing a tactic right now." The android replied.

"We only have one shot at this, tell General Zern that." The Emperor's voice shocked the cave, "If he can't defeat these monsters, we will never achieve our destiny."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Pacific Ocean, A-Laws Mobile HQ

"So you are the girl that can fight the big monsters?" Brigadier General Goodman glared at her.

"Doesn't mean I wanted to." Tsubasa looked to the side, "I mean, wasn't this your job?"

Goodman then squinted at the Celeritas, who were standing at Tsubasa's shoulder: "And who may you be?"

Tsubasa translated and Celeritas stood at ramrod attention: "Adiutrix Sergeant Celeritas, Avianland Space Assault Force ID 667712074."

Goodman looked at the blue bird and asked Zinin: "You say we can't hear nor talk to the bird, but this girl can?"

"Yes, sir." Zinin replied. "I suspected that it was because a bird will communicate in different frequency than us."

"Alright." Goodman thought for a second, "Tsubasa isn't it? Can you come with us and leave that bird behind? And what is it doing to that thing you are wearing?"

It was then Tsubasa noticed that she hasn't unbuckle the SoarThrottle yet and Celeritas was trying to push the throttle.

"Trying pushing the throttle, Tsubasa! We have a chance to get out of here!" Celeritas shouted as she strained her wings and claws.

Tsubasa gave it a try, figuring that she would have to go with the flow now. But no matter how hard she pushed, the throttle just won't budge.

"Looks like we can't transform if there is no PRNAE nearby." Tsubasa commented. "I will see what they are going to do, probably going to take a look at this thing."

"Well, let's see if these primitive technologies can even comprehend this advance system!" Celeritas glided to the floor.

"You found something didn't you."

Celeritas raised her head and moved left and right, as if saying: "Need not to know~"

"Ms. Akar, this way please!" Goodman said.

"So what do you want?" As Tsubasa accompanied Goodman to a place that looked like a lab, she stopped and looked at the equipment inside.

"I don't think you are stupid person and I won't waste everyone's time." Goodman opened the door to the lab, "We want your transformation trinket."

"And what about Cele…what about the blue talking bird?" Tsubasa looked into his eyes.

"Is it living with you?"

"Usually." Tsubasa lied.

Goodman nodded: "That bird had no real value to us right now, we only need something to defeat those monsters."

"Ok." Tsubasa unbuckled the SoarThrottle and handed to Goodman.

At the second Goodman's hand touched the device, he moved it away as if being shocked. The SoarThrottle dropped to the floor.

"What is that, some kind of biometric security?" He cursed

A technician came out with a tong. He tried to grab it, but to everyone's surprise, the tong shattered as if made of glass.

"What is this thing?" The technician muttered.

They tried to kick it, they were shocked; they tried to use a magnet on a string, the magnet can't attract it; they tried to use a robot, the robot's arm also shattered.

"You know what, Ms. Akar, could you please bring this to the lab?" Goodman looked at Tsubasa, who was trying to stifle a laugh. "It is not funny!"

After Tsubasa brought this to an electric scale, the scale displayed a mass of 137 grams.

"Finally, something is happening." Goodman sighed.

But it is not going to be. They next tried to scan its composition and material, yet no matter what type of wavelength they used, or even soundwave, they can't get any results. They tried to cut it with a laser cutter, but the laser reflected from the surface, almost cutting a hole in the ceiling. A hammer didn't prove to be useful either. They next tried to hack into its computer, only for the computer used for the hacking to be fried. Because it is the ship's central computer, the entire HQ stopped working and all command and control function needed to be rerouted into a secondary system.

Back at the small office where Goodman met with Tsubasa, Zinin watched Celeritas with concern. Although he can't understand it's language, nor can he heard it. He was very sure it is a soldier base on the manner it carried itself.

Right now, he found himself entering a stare contest with the bird.

Goodman returned to the room with Tsubasa, "This wretched thing is harder to crack than a one meter thick E-carbon armor."

"Looks like there is no choice," Goodman thought for a sec, "I need you to fight for us."

"No way! Why do I have to do your job?"

"You little…" Goodman was about to shout when Zinin walked up to him.

"Sir, permission to give an opinion."

"It better be good!" Goodman gritted his teeth, "You are interrupting my obscene rant!"

"I could taker her to the medic bay." Zinin whispered by his ear.

"You know what, fine." Goodman hesitated for a while, but finally agreed.

"Tsubasa, I want to show you something, come with me." Zinin motioned Tsubasa to follow him, "And bring your bird too."

Tsubasa sighed: "I guess I don't have a choice then."

"No you don't."

They walked across a long hallway, passing technicians and soldiers until they reached a room labeled "Medical Center".

"This," Zinin put his hand on the handle, "is what will happen when we do our job."

The room was a sea of painful murmur and the smell of blood. One soldier was in the process of amputating his arm, although sedatives had been applied, his painful curse can still be heard. Another soldier was trying to restrain himself when doctors trying to pull bullets, metal shrapnel, and bone fragments from inside him. Another was receiving an operation to remove fractured bones from his arms.

"What…what is this…" Blood drained from Tsubasa's face. She had thought she know how bloody war was, but it was very obvious that just knowing won't prepare her for the amount of carnage. She needed to see it up front, close and personal.

Celeritas watched all of this emotionlessly. He had seen scenes like this far too often during the war.

"Come here." Zinin beckoned her to a bed.

There was no doctor surrounding the bed like the others. Just a few weeping soldiers huddling around their bloodied comrade. One of them, only a bit older than her, was holding his hand, listening to something he was saying when all of a sudden, he twitched and the hand went slack. Zinin walked up to them and quietly said something. The soldier, still holding his dead comrade's hand, dropped into his lap and cried.

Tsubasa felt something wet on her face, then realized that she was crying.

"Why…" Tsubasa tried to stop her tear from gushing out, "Why must this happen!"

Vainly trying to wipe her tear, she did not notice Zinin took her out of the medical center.

"Listen," Zinin shook her shoulder, "If we are the one fighting them, we MIGHT win. But not without soldiers losing their arms, legs, or even their lives."

He pointed at the medical center's door: "That soldier just died had just become a father. He left behind his brother, his wife, and a daughter that had never, and will never receive a father's love. All because he wanted them to live in a better place."

Zinin knew this is emotional blackmailing, but if battling a small group of defeated hostile soldiers caused six dead and fourteen injury, he shuddered to think how much casualty they will take if they had to fight the monster the enemy brought every time.

"Think about people like your father, why are we fighting? Because we have something we don't want to give up on. We have someone we love we don't want to see hurt. Right now, no one else can fight those monsters effectively better than you. So tell me, are you going to leave this job to those who love you but can't protect you unless die trying?"

Wiping away her tear, Tsubasa shouted: "Never!"

"I expected nothing less from the daughter of Graham." Zinin smiled grimly, "You ain't a coward who fled from your heart."

"But on one condition." Tsubasa added, "no one dissects Celeritas and her companions."

"As Lt. Gen. Goodman said, they have no value for us." The pair started walking back to the room.

"And none of those killing the witness stuff." Tsubasa told Goodman, who met them at the door of the room.

"Actually, I have talked to the Leaders of the Blocs." Goodman said, "Even if your Mahou Shoujo persona is exposed, the population won't make a big fuzz over magical girl fighting giant monsters. But try to keep the fight nice and discreet"

He handed a moon-shaped gadget to Tsubasa, "This is a system that allow us to told you where are the monsters. I asked the lab to disguise it as a cellphone trinket girls would normally use. Glad to have you on the team."

He held out his hand to Tsubasa, who shook it with determined force.

"Told your bird soldier to draw out a training regiment for you." Goodman said, "Zinin, send her back on shore."

"Yes, sir." Zinin walked to the door.

"Also, Ms. Akar." Goodman called Tsubasa, who was nearly out of the door, "About this ship…"

"I have not seen nor have been to any Mobile HQ or encounter any strange military forces, and Lt. Col. Zinin is still above the Orbital Elevator. Got it." Tsubasa knew the correct phrase at this situation.

"That's right."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Pacific Ocean, A-Laws Mobile HQ

Watching Tsubasa and Zinin leaving the ship with a severe face, Goodman pull out a radio and muttered: "Operative 0314, come here."

Operative 0314 walked in a moment later. A happy-go-lucky young girl no older than 25, she at least tried to look serious when facing her commanding officer.

"Now, I have a special mission, perfect for you." Goodman said as he clicked the touch screen on his desk. "You are going to infiltrate an Orb high school and observe this young girl and her blue bird pet, which seemed to be some sort of sentient alien. And anyone else you can find that have connection to the power she is wielding."

0314 looked at a photo of Tsubasa and Celeritas standing in the office.

"Sir." She said, "If they were on the ship, why don't you just ask her what you want to know?"

"She has the power to defeat our primary threat, but that doesn't mean they aren't threats themselves. We don't want to antagonize her before we understand what make her so powerful and how does it work." Goodman stated, "You will be her sports teacher."

"Really? Would it be better that someone older and more experienced take this high stake mission?"

"You got to be friendly with her," Goodman said flatly, "Do you think anyone else on this ship is young enough to forge a better relationship with a high school girl?"

"Err, nope. So, what about my cover story?" 0314 asked.

"Just use your real name, no one knows too much about you other than your family is rich. So they won't suspect anything of you."

"Yes, Sir. When would my mission start?"

"Other operatives are working on that; you just make sure your acting is good and you know nothing about her to begin with."

After 0314 left, Goodman sighed. He hated to have someone so immature under his command, but she was the only mind reader they can find.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Haifuri shoreline.

"Thank you for your lift, Lt. Col. Zinin!" Tsubasa said as she left the double seated Realdo.

"Stay safe and keep up your training," Zinin poked his head from the window, "I don't want you to die in the first battle."

"I will do my best!"

Celeritas looked at the departing MS: "Looked like a good CO for his soldiers."

"My father spoke highly of his skill and compassion for his subordinates." Tsubasa recalled, "But he thinks the Lt. Col. needed to take life less seriously."

"What did puffy guy told you?" Celeritas asked as they went back to Tsubasa's home.

"He told you to draw up a training regiment for me."

"Well," Celeritas said, "I think you can join the Track and Field team in your school for start. You aren't going to give up on that, right?"

Tsubasa smiled: "Yeah, that's right. Thank you for pulling me out of my funk."

"You are welcome!" Celeritas landed on Tsubasa's head.

"Stop landing on my head!" Tsubasa tried to grab the blue bird, but failed.

"I don't know, your head feel like a good rock." Celeritas grinned, "I am feeling very comfy."

"You little bird!"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Olofat shoreline

Tsubas, wearing her work-out clothes, stood at a quite beach, staring at the sloshing sea. A golden sun had just rise above the horizon, sprinkling fiery light on the water. She started to do some basic workout, trying to take her mind off the nervousness she felt.

"Tsubasa? Is that you?"

Tsubasa turned her head to the voice. The girl's track and field team of Morgenroete High had just arrived and Mirai was very surprised to see her.

"Yo, Mirai, wasn't she the one…" One girl with brown ponytail whispered to Mirai, but Mirai threw a dirty look at her and she quickly shut up.

"Em…Mirai, I…"

Tsubasa shook her head and slapped her own face. She had faced off against a giant monster and won, this won't scare her!

She took a deep breath, and faced the team with a determined face.

"I would like to join the Track and Field Team, Mirai!"

Looking at Mirai's speechless face, uneasiness crept up from Tsubasa's heart.

"Took you long enough, Tsubasa!" Mirai smiled and bring Tsubasa over to the other teammates.

"This is Tsubasa Akar, you girls!" Mirai said, "Some of you may know her due to whatever reason. But in Morgenroete, everything started anew! She is one of us now, and we will fight for our future together!"

Will the teammates accept me? Thought the blue hair girl anxiously as she observed her teammates.

"Yo!" The brown ponytail girl walked up to Tsubasa and extended her hand, "The name is Kaiserine Natsuki here, I am the Hurdle Race gal. Sorry about bringing up the stuff earlier, let's be pals, shall we?"

"Hi there!" Three of the girls popped forward, "We are the Relay Runners!"—"I am Farha!"—"I am Ranka!"—"I am Freily!"—"Nice to meet you!"

Tsubasa silently let out a breath she is holding.

"I am Tsubasa Akar! Let's fight on together!" She shook the Relay runners' hands, and did a brofist with Kaiserine.

"And my name is Mirai Amari Laurent!" Mirai put her arms on Tsubasa's shoulder, "And I am going to beat you fair and square in the next game!"

"In your dream!"

Everyone laughed, then started the daily exercising regiment.

Not far away, Celeritas was hiding and observing the whole thing.

"That is youth!" She murmured excitedly.

An hour later, Celeritas returned to the attic of Tsubasa's home, where they had been hiding. However, when she came in, only Sophi and Agilis were inside.

"Opacitas left to do some flower watching." Agilis told the blue bird. "Unlike us, her race needs plant nectar to survive, so it also doubles as a breakfast trip."

"Master Sophi," Celeritas asked the plant sage, "I think we can agree Tsubasa would be working with us to defeat the monsters, but it is only pure coincidence for us to met her and for her to obtain the power of SoarThrottle. However, if we want to end the war sooner, we need to find more people that can fight with us. But how could we find such people?"

"I think we can leave that to fate." Sophi looked up from the datapad.

"Really?!"

"The recording inside SoarThrottle mentioned that we should give these devices to people we believe are worthy of them. Each of us come from a race that valued something, and that's how we shape our society. The Aves believe in courage; the Pterygota believe in kindness; the Zooplankton believe in liberty; and the Phytoplankton believe in wisdom. You see courage from Ms. Akar, and that's why your device believe she was worthy of it. While I believe there are things more important than courage, I respect your decision. And I think we can also trust Ms. Opacitas to find the right person to entrust the power to." Sophi walked to the skylight and started to do another round of photosynthesis.

"Not that I am disrespecting your decision, Master," Celeritas was really not sure, "But is it ok for a civilian, especially a dessert shop owner, to choose warriors?"

"Well, we should see, shouldn't we?"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Morgenroete High School court yard.

A petit girl was seen watering the flowers under the hot sun. Sweat flowed over her dark skin, and she would flick her beige color hair so they don't obstruct her emerald eyes. In the eyes of the boys hiding in the shrubs, she was as beautiful as the flowers she cared for.

"Alright, you guys!" The girl shouted toward the shrubs. "Care to be a gentleman and help me water the flowers?"

The boys all stood up in attention like professional soldiers: "Yes, my Lady!"

"Come on, guys," the girl smiled at them, "We are all classmates here, no need that Lady stuff."

"Ok, so are you going to admit that she is a flower of high birth and you are the dirty flies that keeps stalking her?" An old blonde man carrying gardening tools in a wheelbarrow walked toward them. He then turned to the girl "Thanks for helping me water the flowers like always, Alice. This school is just too huge and we are just happened to be near the equator."

"It is ok, Mr. Marlos." Alice smiled, "I am not busy during this time and I like doing this!"

After ten minutes of watering and gardening, the class bell rang and the students started to go back into the school building and Mr. Marlos leaves the flower field. Opacitas rose from the shrubs where the boys used to hide.

"That girl is very kind, isn't it" She talked to the SoarThrottle, which blinked.

"Then should I give it to her?"

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb Union, Morgenroete High School

"…So the demands of the Oil producing nations were rejected during the UN meeting, and the UNION, HRL, and AEU had jointly and formally announced the construction of their Orbital Elevator. The OPEC nations enacted an oil embargo, with aims to drag the Blocs back to negotiation table. This action however, enraged the Blocs, which lead to the First Solar Power War." The history teacher explained. "The OPEC was defeated, with the capital of Saudi Arabia destroyed by nuclear weapon. The South American and African members of the OPEC were invaded and occupied, and a puppet government were set up."

"Sensei!" Alice raised her hand. "Does this means if the Blocs and OPEC could respect each other's hardship and settle their differences, we could avoid all five Solar Power Wars?"

"Emm…" The teacher scratched his head, "Maybe, but the fact is the construction of Solar Ring would render the power monopoly of the OPEC void, and continue using fossil fuel means the world will be uninhabitable by now. So this is a giant zero-sum game with only one winner. But well, these all happened before you were born, so there is nothing we can do about it."

"Maybe, but the world is still playing a zero-sum game even until today." Alice answered, "The Blocs' militaries are constantly playing chicken with each other, and terrorism born from the hatred of the ignored people is still threaten the world. The Orbital Elevator was suppose to end the world's conflict due to energy, but conflicts continued to this day."

Two seats behind her, Tsubasa gazed at the girl emotionlessly.

At the lunch break, Tsubasa felt her SoarThrottle started vibrating. Worried that there might be a PRNAE attack soon, she used an excuse to get away from her teammates and took out her device. However, instead of Celeritas contacting her, it was Opacitas.

"Opacitas-chan?" Tsubasa was surprised. "How did you…never mind, what happened?"

"Do you know a lot about this girl called Alice?" The butterfly asked.

"Well, she comes from AEU and is the daughter of a British noble, that makes her part of those blue blood aristocrats. But she is a nice girl and always helps other people whenever they need it." Tsubasa suddenly realized something, "You are not going to give your device to her, right? She is a pacifist you know!"

"Tsubasa-san," Opacitas sensed the slight dislike from Tsubasa's words, "Is it that you don't like her?"

"Well, I am from UNION and my dad is a soldier fighting those 'chicken games' to protect the freedom and prosperity of our people," Tsubasa looked aside, "So of course I don't like how she just blames UNION for all the bad things in the world."

"Operation Nemesis, ever heard of it?" Suddenly, Alice's voice came out behind her. "The plan to occupy North African oil producing nations during the Second Solar Power War. As a result of the combine effort of UNION and AEU, the entire political map of North Africa was completely redrawn. A lot of towns were destroyed and millions became refugees. The lost of these economic centers put the entire African continent into an economic crisis and led to more wars that destroyed more cities and the lost of more lives."

"But…"

"You are right." Alice continued, "After AEU completely controlled Africa, they enacted a lot of social, economical, and political reform that improved the lives of African people in these two hundred years. For the people of Africa, who had been living under dictators and emperors who exploited them for their own benefits, AEU is a better master. My father's clan, the McConnell, had been part of the African Reconstruction Council, and they are committed to their noblesse oblige. So under a rational mind, I can't bring myself to hate AEU or UNION, because these hatred won't bring about the future for the planet."

"Then why…" Tsubasa was confused.

"Because not only my grandparents' cities were leveled by bombardment, their friends and families are caught in the crossfire, they had to live their whole lives and die in AEU refugee camps! And if not for my mom risking her life to save the people trapped in the fire, we are still going to live in the refugee camp until today! How do you expect me to forget those collective memories of the suffering of my people?"

After her outburst, Alice ran off, leaving a stunned Tsubasa.

Alice ran into an empty classroom and lean on the door.

"What have I done?" She said while holding her forehead, ashamed of her outburst. "I let loose my emotions on people that have nothing to do with them…again."

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, South Pacific, 100 meter underwater

A blocky object cruises through the water, sending frightened fishes everywhere. This object looked like the drop ship that invaded earth twice, but this time, Makkal opted for a more low-profile approach.

"We are going to take over the military base under an hour." A humanoid shrouded in a dark cloak stated, "PRNAE team will attack the second the missile exploded and take the first responder by surprise. Then ground troop will be sent in and take down Pirati barracks and command center. Capture or kill all High Value Target as situation changes."

As the cloaked soldiers cheered, dark and ominous eyes started blinking at the cargo bay.

2307, Outer Galaxy, Quadrant IV, Earth, Orb, Olofat, Morgenroete High School

It took Opacitas half an hour of flying to find Alice McConnell again. It was the afternoon break and she was helping Kaiserine doing her math homework. Although Kaiserine had a hard time getting the complex calculus problem, Alice still patiently guide her through.

"I thought she dislike people from the Blocs for destroying her hometown, so why was she so nice to them?" Opacitas thought.

The sun was starting to set when the school was over. Tsubasa was training with her team when she saw her History teacher walked out from the school building with a big box of homework and quizzes papers in his arms. What surprised her was that Alice was following him, with another box in her arms.

"What a weird girl." Tsubasa muttered as the team walked aside to take a sip of water.

"I heard from Opacitas," Celeritas flew down from a tree and landed behind Tsubasa's school bag. "You had a big argument with that girl?"

"It is not an argument," Tsubasa tried to change the topic, "I am more surprised see Alice would help him carry those papers after he said there was no other way than to destroy her country."

"She must be those people that had a big heart." Celeritas commented, "When Avianland is still a warzone, there are people who championed peace and mutual understanding between different races. They would even try to talk to people who just bombarded their villages. Me personally dislike them, but they did help bring about the peace we have…the peace we had."

After helping her teacher carry the papers to his office, Alice was going downstairs when she heard a voice speaking to her.

"Was it painful?"

"What?" Alice looked around at the empty staircase, "Who's there?"

"I have been observing you these few days." A butterfly the size of a pineapple with a backpack of the same size flew in from the window of the staircase and landed on the window's sill. "Your action and words have bought smile to a lot of people, who come from countries that bought destruction to your love ones. Even when they show no concern over what had happen in your life due to their countries' action, you still care about them and help them with their trouble. Why? What motivated you away from the well of hate?"

"I heard from my mom that the place my family used to live was a harsh desert. Not much water was available throughout the year and the land was barren. However, even in these environment, a very beautiful flower grows. My parents told me that I should grow like the Desert Flower. Never lost a heart of kindness even in the harshest environment. And AEU indeed followed through the promise to bring prosperity to our country." Alice leaned on the wall, "Even if we are refugee families, my father's clan still accepted us and helped us adjusted to the lives in AEU. There are both hate and love in my heart, but I have long decided that love is much better than hate."

"But why won't you let go of the hate toward them?" Opacitas leaned forward.

"It is hard, you know." Alice lowered her head, "Not everyone is as lucky as we are, and we were constantly being lectured on about that war and how much suffering it caused. We can't forget about it, or else it would be disrespectful to our families and friends who died because of they were born in a country that just happened to be in the way of the Bloc's and the Earth's future. Even if I would give my life to save a AEU or UNION kid who are about to drown, I…I don't think I would ever forgive the people who have made my family suffer."

"Alice-chan…" Opacitas was touched by the story.

"I must be a very strange person, right? I sounded like a pacifist, but my heart is still shrouded by hate…Sorry to ask so late, but may you tell me who you are?" Alice suddenly remembered her manner.

"My name is Opacitas, a Caelum from Avianland! Nice to meet you!" Opacitas bowed.

"And my name is Alice McConnell, nice to meet you too!" Alice curtsied.

As both side smiled, a shrill voice broke the peaceful evening.

"What is that!" Alice saw multiple smoke trails broke out from the sea and flew toward the school. "Missiles?!"

At the same time, air raid siren rang out as the school started to evacuate.

"We will talk later," Alice carefully took Opacitas off the sill and ran downstairs, "We need to evacuate!"

Just as Alice ran out of the building, she collided with someone with blue hair and both fell to the ground.

"I am very sorr…Tsubasa-san? What are you doing here?" Alice was surprised. "And who was that blue bird?"

"Sergeant Celeritas?" Opacitas flew down, "Are you alright?"

"No worry, I am ok." Celeritas got up and looked to Tsubasa, "Let's Go!"

"Right!" As Tsubasa stood up and ready to ran toward the shore line, an arm grabbed her from behind.

"What are you going?" Alice asked warily, "The evacuation is that way!"

"Right!" Tsubasa shook Alice's hands off her, "So you go that way, and I will solve this issue, and you never saw me doing anything because this is a classified military…"

Suddenly, the alarm on both SoarThrottle started blaring.

"PRNAE detected!"

"Wait what?!" Alice looked at the beeping device inside Opacitas's backpack.

"Those bastards again?" Tsubasa scowled, "Take a break already!"

"Tsubasa, the missiles are going down now!" Celeritas warned.

"Let hell it would! Precure, Blast Off!"

A bright cyan light emerged from within Tsubasa and surrounding her, causing Alice and Opacitas to shield their eyes. As the light dies down, A girl wearing something straight out of a magical girl show stood where Tsubasa used to stood.

"Reach our future with blinding speed! Cure Peregrinus!"

"What…Is…That?" Alice was stunned.

"Come, Peregrin striker!" Peregrinus shouted. A black linear rifle with blue strips appeared in her hand and she fired the weapon on the missiles, taking all of them down.

"Tsubasa, is that…you?" Alice asked with a shaking voice.

"Well, I am Cure Peregrinus now, a hero that defended the world from fearsome…"

"Look out!" Alice pointed upward.

A heinous monster drops silently toward Peregrinus, attempted to take her head with its tentacle. It looked like a squid, but with the head of a sea anemone. Its bodies were clearly formed out of an old submarine that must have been under the water for at least over a century, judging from the—now mutated—sea lives that was on its hull.

"Thanks!" After dodging its attack, Peregrinus looked back at Alice, "Now get away from here, because monster battles make a lot of collateral damage."

Peregrinus took off toward the monster, a beam saber at her hand. She slices at the thrusting tentacles, but to her dismay, they just quickly grew back. Enraged, the PRNAE started grabbing debrises and rubbles and threw them at Peregrinus, who dodged them with ease.

"You think these could get me? Think again!"

The monster started to wave its body, which confuses Peregrinus. Suddenly, a missile modified from a torpedo shot out from one of the tubes at its head and flew right at Peregrinus. She tried to dodge it, but the missile turned and hit her back.

"Ouch!"

More missiles flew out from the anemone-like appendages, forcing Peregrinus to engage at a high-speed missile dodge. She tried to drop flares and deploy a particle screen that could confuse radar—she was not that surprise when she found she had them—but somehow the missiles kept following her!

"Peregrinus! Shut down your engine!" Alice's voice came out from the school's PA system. "They are attracted to the sound of your engine!"

"Sound? So that's why!" Peregrinus shut off her engine and put her power to her hair, achieving some level of gliding. "What are you going to do!"

At the same time, Alice blasted a recording of jet engines through the stereo on the stadium at maximum volume. The missiles, attracted to the sound pattern of the engine, changed their direction and destroyed the new target.

"Nice work! Alice!" Peregrinus started pressing the buttons to activate the killing strike. "Time for you to get skewered!"

"I don't think so, human warrior!" A distorted voice came out from the monster. "This monster stored an armed and readied 4-megaton nuclear bomb. Any radical impact will cause it to go off! So are you still going to ram it?"

"What!" Peregrinus was shocked, then she was whipped from behind by one of the tentacles. The powerful force slammed her into the building face first, making a big crater on the wall.

"So if you don't want this city to be leveled, you had better surrender to us!"

"They want to take Tsubasa-san prisoner and destroy the city!" Alice was horrified. "What are those people thinking!"

"We can't allow our enemies to obtain her power!." Goodman slammed the table, "Although we can't unlock its secret, there is no telling whether the enemies could!"

"I suggest we blow her up with the monster as they underwater. Although we will lose half a city and lost our only effective counter against our enemies, at least our enemies won't get any stronger because of this."

"Captain Isan Rayer," Zinin glared at the man with anger, "Can't you suggest something that don't involve killing a comrade-in-arms?"

"It isn't a good habit to get too emotionally involve with the force units, Lieutenant." Rayer smirked, "You can't think clearly if you do. I hereby propose to remove Lt. Zinin from today's combat roster, he is…disqualified to do this job."

Zinin clutched his fists in anger, but since Rayer was higher rank than him, he can't object anything he says. He would want to contact Tsubasa immediately, but Rayer had already motioned two of his soldiers to monitor him.

He would later know that everything that was said during the meeting was passed along, by something, to Celeritas's SoarThrottle.

"They want to blow us up together?!" Celeritas screamed, "How could they!"

"Damn! I don't want to die yet!" Peregrinus gone into a panic and tried to escape from the tentacles that grabbed her, only for a missile to be detonated right on her head. The blast wave knocked Peregrinus dizzy and powerless, and the monster started moving its body over the wall of the school.

"Please stop!" A figure stood before the giant monstrosity. "Why are you here? What are you fighting for? Is this something that warrants such drastic action?"

"Alice?!" Peregrinus was worried, "Get away from there now!"

"If there is someone who can talk for the other side, then someone had to be the first one to try to solve the conflict by communicating with them rather than fighting!" Alice shouted, "So please! Talk to me about your prospective!"

"What will you know!" A giant tentacle slammed on the wall beside Alice, sending debris everywhere. "You are just a naïve girl that had too much sweetness in your life!"

"That's why I don't want people to be in pain anymore! If there is a way to solve our differences other than fighting, shouldn't we try for that path instead?" Alice stared at the monster with determination.

"You are really annoying, you know." The monster spoke in the same distorted voice. "Get her out of my sight."

A group of Pucci soldiers ran through the hole created by the tentacle earlier and dragged Alice away from the PRNAE. They then unceremonially dumped her on the ground.

"I would only say this once, you pathetic Pirati," The monster started moving over the wall, "This is a hatred that can never be erased until all, every single one of you are killed by our hands. There is no other way than that."

"Then why do you allow me to live!" Seeing the monster moving closer to the sea, Alice shouted desperately.

Suddenly, she heard a mechanical voice: "All pre-flight check completed. Ready to soar!"

Alice turned around and was surprised that Opacitas was flying behind her, with a gauntlet-like device in her hands. The device was white colored, with a black lever, and four big icon on a hologram screen.

"The SoarThrottle approbates your heart!" Opacitas shouted, "This could be the power that could save Peregrinus, but you will have to fight too!"

"Fight?" Alice stopped and turned around.

"This allows you to turn into powerful combat units called PRECURE, and give you to abilities to defeat these monsters called PRANE. I already think you are a good person who is worthy of this power, but I don't want to put you through more dilemma of peace and war!" Opacitas explained, her head lowered in shame.

"Don't worry." Opacitas raised her head and saw Alice smile at her, "I will fight in my own way."

She took the SoarThrottle and strapped it onto her arm and pressed the icons of engine, pilot, battery, and weapon. Then she put her hand on the lever.

"Because my passion for a more peaceful world will not lose to anyone, including me!"

A bright white light enveloped her and Opacitas when she pushed the lever to the middle mark. When the light dispersed, Alice found herself floating above the ground and had a completely different set of clothing and accessories on. Her grey hair had turned silver, and was tied into a twin tail that rise above her head in defiance to gravity using a pair of butterfly shaped knots. A gold and rice-yellow normal suit style body-fitting blouse with sliver linings and what looked like armors made of crystals on her chest, that reflected and refracted sunlight into colorful display, and a yellow skirt that looked like the desert flower. Four flower shaped crystals floated on chest level around her and followed her wherever she went. A pair of neon green, almost glowing boots adorn her feet, with one high up to her knee and the other opening up like a flower at her ankle. Her hair was longer and turned into a series of ringlet braids, with two antennas rose from her head. Three pairs of long, silver-blue colored metal strip that looked like elongated fairy wings and ended in a wheel-like mechanical construct attached themselves to her back, completing her transformation.

"This is a weird feeling," Alice turned around and inspected her new body. "But with this, I can save Tsubasa-san! Opacitas-san, please…Opacitas-san?"

"I am here!" Opacitas's voice came from inside the SoarThrottle, "Let's go!"

Alice willed the energy to flow into her wings. As the glowing particles being released, she floated up and accelerates toward the monster.

"What is your plan?" Opacitas asked. "How are we going to stop him?"

"One of my music teachers has told me that songs that are filled with emotion could reach the heart of even the ones who had succumbed to darkness." Alice said, "I will try that, and I have just the song for it. It is something I have written myself."

Peregrinus was still fighting the concussion in her brain when she heard a song. It is soothing, with a taint of sadness. It is a song born from a soul marked by war, but yearn for peace.

"_**If only I could wait**_

_**For a beautiful dawn**_

_**With a pure heart...**_**"**

"Why can I hear singing!" Inside the floating dropship, the cloaked humanoid looked around, "Why can I understood the words!"

"_**Who told me that**_

_**There is a land without any conflicts**_

_**Beyond the dark seas and skies?**_**"**

_That is somewhere we can't reach, young Pirati._ The humanoid shook his head, then inputted a set of order to the monster. A wave of missile was launched from the monster's appendages, corkscrewing in the air to avoid being shot down. Alice saw that, and with a mental command, particles started releasing from her skirts and sleeves, creating a particle ball that enclosed her. This time, the missiles flew straight and true and slammed into the ball, creating a huge explosion.

"No!" Peregrinus was horrified.

Seeing the huge fireball, the humanoid sighed. However, he soon realized one thing—the singing continues!

"_**A melody that can quench the thirst**_

_**Of the land that calms the waters' flow **_

_**Even if it does not exist anywhere right now,**_**"**

Alice disengaged the shield, and resumed her flight.

"Who are you! Why are you trying to mess with my mind!" The distorted voice in the monster shouted, and tentacles shot toward Alice from every direction.

"I am just someone who doesn't want to be burdened by hate! And I don't want you to!" As soon as the tentacles met the particle shield, they disintegrated as if made of ash. "I know you are not a bad person, or you will kill me back there."

"Now stay away or I would really kill you!" The monster had already put one of its tentacles into the water. "There is a nuclear bomb on the thing!"

"You want kill because something between us in the past, but your action will change nothing but opening up a fresh wound that will continue the cycle of hate! Don't you want a peaceful world for our future generation?!"

Like a hammer, the words strike right inside the heart of the humanoid. For he too, wishes for the same thing, but he has been too indoctrinated to accept that solution.

"Perhaps you are right, young Pirati, but I can't see the exit of that path." With a powerful sprint, the monster was in the air, going to dive into the water.

"I am sorry, but I won't let you take Peregrinus away!" Alice shouted, "Sword Bits!"

Swords made of the green particles darted out of her wings, maneuvering in the sky to avoid the fresh barrage of missiles. They sliced and diced the tentacles at the root, preventing them from regenerating again. The tentacle holding Peregrinus went slacked, and she used this chance to fly away.

Suddenly, an alarm started to blare. Opacitas shouted from her SoarThrottle.

"High Energy Discharge detected! Right above us!"

"Don't tell me…The microwave transmitter from the Orbital Ring?!" Alice looked up as the clouds span into a dark tunnel to the cosmos above.

"What do you mean you can't redirect it?!" Up on the Geosynchronized Station, Rayer was in a panic, "The asset is no longer being controlled by the enemy and we can't afford a nuclear explosion right in someone's capital!"

"Something went wrong with the servo and we can't move the transmitting dish!"

As they are arguing, a bright beam of weaponized microwave shot out of the dish.

Alice looked up to the sky silently, then turned to ask Peregrinus: "Where is the Orbital Ring and other facilities relative to us?"

"Right there." Peregrinus pointed out the approximated direction of the system that provided energy to the whole Earth. "What are you going to do? You can't-"

"I can!" Alice started flying up, "And I will! Opacitas-san, what is the most powerful tool I can use to deflect that beam?"

"The manual says you can generate a beam concentrator to concentrate all the lights hitting the concentrator into a powerful shot. But that is a…"

"Pardon me, but I had an idea!" Alice interrupted her, "How do I create that?"

As per the manual Opacitas read to her, Alice pushed the icons of Engine, Pilot, Weapon, and Fuel, and a message flashed:

"Final Action initiated, require directive!"

Alice pushed the throttle to maximum power, and opened her arm. Powerful streams of particle spurt out from her armor on the chest, gradually becoming a giant butterfly.

The humanoid climbed outside the dropship and looked at the scene, jaw dropped.

"Is this the power of your wish?"

Alice sang on:

"_**Let the token of water be in my hands**_

_**Even after engulfing all the flames,**_

_**It still continues to flow, gently and broadly**_**"**

Without warning, the beam slammed on to the butterfly. But rather than resisting the beam, it absorbs it like water halting fire. It is the peace everyone yearns for delicately and caringly restraining the beast of war.

"Precure! Tomorrow Nexus!"

The concentrated energy turned into warm light particles, dispersing to the wind as the butterfly flew around the beach.

"She turned a weapon into a tool of peace!" Opacitas was impressed.

"_**I will reach its tranquility**_

_**Always, someday, for sure**_

_**With your hand in mine...**_**"**

Peregrinus and Celeritas can't stop themselves and applauded for the brilliant song. It was then they realized there are other people clapping as well.

Descended from the sky. They found the PRNAE on the submarine disintegrated and a lone figure was standing on the deck of the dropship. He did not stop until Alice and Peregrinus landed on the deck.

"Welcome on board Dropship 071. I am Commander Zuir." The cloaked humanoid put his left hand to his right chest.

"I am Cure Peregrinus." Peregrinus said, "And this is…"

"I am Cure Iris." Iris remembered Peregrinus's warning about keeping her identity secret and the Iris Butterfly in her vision. "And nice to meet you."

"Cure Iris, what a nice name." Zuir chuckled, "It is a shame we can't meet under a better circumstance."

"But we still can! I am sure if…" Iris was interrupted by Zuir.

"Millions of years ago, the world is a different place. Until one day, the invaders took our lands away from us, and chased us underground—Kew!"

A bloody cough shook Zuir's body, he was falling when Iris caught him.

"Are you alright?! What happened?!"

"Soon I am going to join my ancestors, but at least I am dying on the land we once own."

"What do you mean?!" Iris was almost crying. "We will get you to the doctors!"

"Iris, he swallowed a fast reacting poison. We can't save him now." Peregrinus looked to Zuir, who nodded. "You would take all your military secrets to your grave, right?"

"That's right, young warrior." Another cough shook his body, the bloods on the deck had grown into a pool, "But if you want to seek, you will find out the source of the conflict."

"I can see…the stars…" With that, his outstretched arm turned slack.

Iris slowly lowered his body to the deck and closed his eyes. Behind her, Peregrinus stood in attention:

"To our dedicated and valiant foe, salute!"


End file.
